Scorpios Mykonos
Carolin Saage: The Eyes of Scorpios
With so many photographers out there with skills substituted and virtually eradicated by fully-automatic gadgetry, it is harder than ever to stand your own ground, to believe in your own vision...
Without her and her brilliant eye, what would we be left with now that it's over?
Given that a game of dice continues indefinitely, it can be shown that every possible result will eventually reoccur. We believe in Eternal Recurrence – the concept first explicated in Indian philosophy, adopted in ancient Egypt, taken up by the Greeks, and later revived by Nietzsche to be high-kicked across the expanse of space and time to us, here and now.
But how can we wait forever for our experiences to reproduce themselves in the exact same scenario?
We cannot afford to wait that long. This prompts us to properly commit these experiences to memory – one by one, in no particular order, starting with the names of the people who contributed to Project Scorpios 2015. They made it possible, turning the uncertainties of our early days into lasting accomplishments. Regardless of whether we ever align in the same constellation again, they remain a foundational part of this project's most grueling, formative moment.
In a world saturated with photographers – where skill is routinely substituted and virtually eradicated by fully automatic gadgetry – it is harder than ever to stand your ground, trust your vision, and listen to your own voice. Yet, paradoxically, this poses no issue for Carolin Saage.
Caro’s artistic self-confidence and the sheer quality of her work stem largely from being in the right place at the right time. Not that she forces it; the opposite is true. Situations simply find and enfold her. She allows circumstances to consume her whole, and while being digested, she pulls out her camera to photograph their seething entrails.
Though often vibrating with saturated color, Saage’s output is anything but fiction. She is genuinely puzzled when her photography is labeled "artistic." It isn't. It is simply her instinctive way of encountering and registering a reality that, in her case, happens to be aesthetically charged, grotesque, or surreal.
This raw approach is the story behind 25/7, her 208-page photographic volume dedicated to Bar25, the legendary Berlin party playground. "Whoever can remember was not there," reads the epigraph. Given the sheer level of her involvement, Saage should be right there in the front row of those with no recollection whatsoever – seven years of total amnesia.
Except for one detail: she never went to Bar25 without her camera.
Fortunately for everyone else whose minds might otherwise be blank, her obsession paid off:
But how can we wait forever for our experiences to reproduce themselves in the exact same scenario?
We cannot afford to wait that long. This prompts us to properly commit these experiences to memory – one by one, in no particular order, starting with the names of the people who contributed to Project Scorpios 2015. They made it possible, turning the uncertainties of our early days into lasting accomplishments. Regardless of whether we ever align in the same constellation again, they remain a foundational part of this project's most grueling, formative moment.
In a world saturated with photographers – where skill is routinely substituted and virtually eradicated by fully automatic gadgetry – it is harder than ever to stand your ground, trust your vision, and listen to your own voice. Yet, paradoxically, this poses no issue for Carolin Saage.
Caro’s artistic self-confidence and the sheer quality of her work stem largely from being in the right place at the right time. Not that she forces it; the opposite is true. Situations simply find and enfold her. She allows circumstances to consume her whole, and while being digested, she pulls out her camera to photograph their seething entrails.
Though often vibrating with saturated color, Saage’s output is anything but fiction. She is genuinely puzzled when her photography is labeled "artistic." It isn't. It is simply her instinctive way of encountering and registering a reality that, in her case, happens to be aesthetically charged, grotesque, or surreal.
This raw approach is the story behind 25/7, her 208-page photographic volume dedicated to Bar25, the legendary Berlin party playground. "Whoever can remember was not there," reads the epigraph. Given the sheer level of her involvement, Saage should be right there in the front row of those with no recollection whatsoever – seven years of total amnesia.
Except for one detail: she never went to Bar25 without her camera.
Fortunately for everyone else whose minds might otherwise be blank, her obsession paid off:
“
Without her and her brilliant eye, what would we be left with now that it's over? A few hazy memories here and there, but nothing of the visual kaleidoscope of people and emotions her documentation managed to preserve.
On a more serious note, another project recently found Saage: a collaboration with sex therapist Vanessa Del Rae. Their partnership culminated in Sex Deluxe, a generously illustrated book published to worldwide acclaim and massive press attention, tackling the subject of sexuality in older adults.
Sexuality in later life has long been treated as a taboo – fraught with prejudice, viewed as an awkward incongruity, or even dismissed as an aberration that triggers discomfort in conversation, let alone visually. Yet slowly, these inhibitions are caving in – due in no small part to Saage’s photography, which is so deeply sensual and raw that it cracks the heavy boulders of stereotype.
Beyond her work in avant-garde fashion and cutting-edge performance art with the BirdMilk Collective – as well as her editorial features in Die Welt, Freestyle, Groove, Interview, and Der Spiegel – Saage consistently directs her talents and "will to change" toward mainstream psychosocial phenomena, aiming for a shift in public consciousness.
Her recent series on gender identity and transgender experiences uses her lens to help liberate individuals from the confines of the wrong body – and to free an all-too-hostile society from the grip of dark preconceptions.
Currently, Saage is on a daring exploratory journey from the outside in – probing the multiplicity of human subjectivity to capture the space between who someone truly is and the persona they present to the world.
"Personas" are central to her latest project: an intimate look into the semi-private lives of drag queens and gender-fluid individuals. The work functions as a crossover of deep intrapersonal portraiture and semiotics – or, through the lens of Eternal Recurrence, a contemporary re-engagement with Diane Arbus and Roland Barthes.
Saage connects to Arbus – the "Wizard of Odds" – through an obsession with Difference (whether born of birth, accident, choice, belief, or predilection), allowing eccentrically charged humanity to well up from her frames. She connects to Barthes through a theoretical fascination with masks – the philosophy that "the mask is the meaning."
She encounters her subjects in public, where drag thrives as a distinct cultural phenomenon, and then follows them into private spaces. There, their exaggerated personas are washed away in the shower, succumbing to the mundane demands of a Monday morning. By exposing their real drama, she metaphorically exposes ours.
Above all, these works transcend mere art and entertainment. They promote core social values and manifest the artist’s high cultural ambition, revealing her true inner strength and creative fecundity.
In alignment with an overarching philosophy that demands "doing and being more" to drive spiritual evolution, it is the profound weight of her oeuvre – at once radical and explicit – that makes Carolin Saage’s contribution to Project Scorpios 2015 far from accidental. It is deeply, undeniably purposeful.
Sexuality in later life has long been treated as a taboo – fraught with prejudice, viewed as an awkward incongruity, or even dismissed as an aberration that triggers discomfort in conversation, let alone visually. Yet slowly, these inhibitions are caving in – due in no small part to Saage’s photography, which is so deeply sensual and raw that it cracks the heavy boulders of stereotype.
Beyond her work in avant-garde fashion and cutting-edge performance art with the BirdMilk Collective – as well as her editorial features in Die Welt, Freestyle, Groove, Interview, and Der Spiegel – Saage consistently directs her talents and "will to change" toward mainstream psychosocial phenomena, aiming for a shift in public consciousness.
Her recent series on gender identity and transgender experiences uses her lens to help liberate individuals from the confines of the wrong body – and to free an all-too-hostile society from the grip of dark preconceptions.
Currently, Saage is on a daring exploratory journey from the outside in – probing the multiplicity of human subjectivity to capture the space between who someone truly is and the persona they present to the world.
"Personas" are central to her latest project: an intimate look into the semi-private lives of drag queens and gender-fluid individuals. The work functions as a crossover of deep intrapersonal portraiture and semiotics – or, through the lens of Eternal Recurrence, a contemporary re-engagement with Diane Arbus and Roland Barthes.
Saage connects to Arbus – the "Wizard of Odds" – through an obsession with Difference (whether born of birth, accident, choice, belief, or predilection), allowing eccentrically charged humanity to well up from her frames. She connects to Barthes through a theoretical fascination with masks – the philosophy that "the mask is the meaning."
She encounters her subjects in public, where drag thrives as a distinct cultural phenomenon, and then follows them into private spaces. There, their exaggerated personas are washed away in the shower, succumbing to the mundane demands of a Monday morning. By exposing their real drama, she metaphorically exposes ours.
Above all, these works transcend mere art and entertainment. They promote core social values and manifest the artist’s high cultural ambition, revealing her true inner strength and creative fecundity.
In alignment with an overarching philosophy that demands "doing and being more" to drive spiritual evolution, it is the profound weight of her oeuvre – at once radical and explicit – that makes Carolin Saage’s contribution to Project Scorpios 2015 far from accidental. It is deeply, undeniably purposeful.
