The Go-Between
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„At first glance I always think, that this is me on these pictures... but I know, that I am prettier. Yes, I created this persona, but I know that I am entirely different to her.“
The phantom theory. Honore de Balzac had a curious notion about photography. He believed that every photo stripped away an infinitesimal layer of the subject's being to be deposited on the film. Allowing oneself to be photographed excessively risked being very gradually peeled, like layers of an onion, until one dissapeared entirely.

Several contemporary thinkers have revived 'the phantom theory' and implied it to the overxposed mediacelebrities of our era. Under the repeated assaults of photographers, stars lose their materiality and reality. They become nomore than shadows of themselves and end up as virtual ghosts. This is exactly the process that Kathrin Guenter widhed to show in her series.

In the great tradition of nineteenth century spirit photography the german artist rephotographed tabloid images with the successive reproductions layered on, one after another. She creates evanescent presences of disincarnated phantoms, who truly seem to be their own ghosts.

„I can't believe how professional and down-to earth I look. My double is even more beautiful than me.“
Paris Hilton

„I’m not caught up in any of it. It’s not really part of my life.“
Nicole Kidman

“I can confirm that’s my bum.”
David Beckham

"A true heiress is never mean to her double - except if she steals your boyfriend."
Paris Hilton

“She'll never see it my way, because she's not me!”
Britney Spears

“I'm obsessively opposed to my double.” Gwen Stefani
Double, etheric counterpart of the physical body which, when out of coincidence, may temporarily move about in space in comparative freedom and appear in various degrees of density to others. The belief in the existence of the double, or astral body, is age old, its acceptance as a working hypothesis solves many a puzzling problem in psychical research. (Nandor Fodor, Encyclopedia of Psychic Science, 1966)
Direct prints on Aludibond
Different sizes
Edition of 3 plus 2 AE
Installation view, PAPARAZZI! Centre Pompidou-Metz 2014