2018–ongoing

Unternächte is the term my grandmother and great-grandmother in Bavaria used for the nights between Winter Solstice and Epiphany – a liminal time known elsewhere in Germany and Austria as Raunächte. The old fades and the new has yet to emerge, as winter gives way to spring and light slowly returns. Here, life and death, light and darkness blur into a space both dangerous and cathartic, where the gates to the beyond are said to stand wide open, and the spirits descend into the mortal world. In my family, this time has been marked by tales and traditions passed down through generations of women: stories are shared, oracles interpreted, and guidance conjured for the uncertain path ahead.

History, like the seasons, moves in cycles – never repeating exactly, but carrying familiar patterns. States of stability eventually fracture, and recurring disasters reshape the world. Today, the world stands at its own kind of Raunächte: political divisions, environmental crisis, and technological disorientation echo the ancestral fears that once inspired people to create stories and rituals to navigate the unknown. The customs preserved by the women in my family now resonate in a new light, offering insight into how we confront crisis and uncertainty in this unfolding era.

Through photography, I explore how we turn to rites and tales during times of chaos. In Unternächte, I reimagine family stories and local traditions to create new narratives, reflecting on what is preserved, what is lost, and what must evolve. This work considers change as a universal and permanent condition – one that challenges us to navigate moments of collapse and renewal, discovering new ways of seeing and connecting. The camera turns ordinary moments into mystic possibilities, suggesting that in these troubled times, our hope may not lie in technology, but in reconnecting with each other and the more-than-human world.