honorable mention
Mirja Maria Thiel germany
title
Portrait of an Artist as an Old Man
In my free work, which began in September 2016, I am completely committed to the emotional reality of the charismatic protagonist: his intensity, vulnerability and resilience define the portraits of his soul.
It is my wish to raise awareness, compassion and intellectual understanding with this intimate narrative of an Alzheimer’s afflicted person’s (inner) life.
Since 2014 Mirja has been a student on the degree program (B.A.) „Photojournalism and Documentary Photography“ at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, Germany. At the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel in Luxembourg she took photography workshops with Darcy Padilla, Rob Hornstra and Vanessa Winship. Participant in a workshop with Tanzim Wahab, October 2019.
Next to local photojournalism Mirja works primarily on personal long-term documentary projects. She lives with her husband and their three children close to Bremen in Northern Germany.
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entry description
This series tells the life of Fritz Dressler (b. 1937), a German landscape and architectural photographer who has suffered from Alzheimer’s for several years. Dressler was formerly a Professor of Photography and “Moving Images” at the University of the Arts in Bremen. Before the onset of his dementia, Dressler resided in the artist village of Worpswede for more than 40 years. He was known for his influential and creative personality. Meanwhile, he is no longer able to call his illness by its name, but can only resignedly acknowledge, “Actually, I don’t know anything anymore.” But his self-awareness – as someone who sees himself as an artist and thus preserves his presence – is still alive: “I am not dead, I’m still moving!”In my free work, which began in September 2016, I am completely committed to the emotional reality of the charismatic protagonist: his intensity, vulnerability and resilience define the portraits of his soul.
It is my wish to raise awareness, compassion and intellectual understanding with this intimate narrative of an Alzheimer’s afflicted person’s (inner) life.
about the photographer
Mirja Maria Thiel, born in Hamburg, Germany in 1971, studied American, English and German Literature and Linguistics. She finished her studies with a Master’s thesis exploring the "Grotesque Worldview and Mythical Consciousness in Selected Works of American Poetress Sylvia Plath". Thereafter she worked for the literary publishing houses’ editorial departments at Suhrkamp and Schöffling & Co as well as for the image editorial department of the World Wide Fund for Nature, all situated in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.Since 2014 Mirja has been a student on the degree program (B.A.) „Photojournalism and Documentary Photography“ at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover, Germany. At the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel in Luxembourg she took photography workshops with Darcy Padilla, Rob Hornstra and Vanessa Winship. Participant in a workshop with Tanzim Wahab, October 2019.
Next to local photojournalism Mirja works primarily on personal long-term documentary projects. She lives with her husband and their three children close to Bremen in Northern Germany.
back to gallery