It was an enthralling challenge for me to make a selection out of the many uploaded images for my Guestroom. Not that I didn’t feel welcome in my temporary home. It was just so crowded. A lot of interesting images were available. Secondly, it had to do with my job as a museum curator. I make meaning – put in the photograph by the photographer – explicit in the form of physical exhibitions. To look at visual quality, content, context and how it fits into a body of work when trying to understand a photograph is running through my veins. For me the aforementioned conditions are important and I was – PANIC! – missing them when I curated this online exhibition for Der Greif. Some photographers accompanied their images with a short statement but in general there was only the image. The quantity of the entries didn’t allow me to thoroughly investigate the context of the image. Also Der Greif didn’t allow me to use more than one image of the same photographer. I felt lost and I was mad. I had to call myself to order: »Hey, do not make it too difficult. These photographers send in their work voluntarily and allow you to run off with their work.« Realising this gave me tremendous freedom which I enjoyed to the max.

After I had scrolled through all the images a couple of times, I decided to base my choice loosely on keywords. After all man is a being that ultimately wants to be in control. I chose intuitively for archeology, time, cosmos, photography and reproduction. I had the feeling that a lot of images were circling around these themes. I sense there is a link between these keywords even if I cannot figure out exactly what this is yet. Some of the quick thoughts I wrote down while selecting:

• Archeology is the science that – since the dawn of humanity – studies material artefacts in an attempt to reconstruct the past. It emerged as a science in the nineteenth century, as did photography.
• The camera was used as a tool to decipher the relation between cultural remains of older civilizations and cultural values.
• Both archeology and photography are connected to art and science.
• The collective memory is important in both photography and archeology.
• In archaeological artifacts and photography time is solidified.
• The photographic artefact can be considered as the archeology of the future in wich time is contained.

This is only an early starting point I certainly want to explore in the future. For this I want to thank all participating photographers and of course Der Greif.