In the Psychasthenia 10 series 1 and 2, we are confronted with night time photographs of apartment buildings in different western cities. The low light levels and colours intermix the background and the foreground in the images, and the 35mm photography gives a blurred distinction between architectural or structural elements. The buildings —all from between 1959 and 1992 do not have clear indicators of their economic or class relations but we are left to interpret them in this context from our own projections of experience, fantasy or prejudice of the city.

The photographs were a also reaction to the German architectural photography of the late 90’s with their large format structural rigidness and high production value and also the trend of anthropological photography of that time which had a very problematic relationship to their subjects. The Psychasthenia photographs were shot with a small 35mm camera and a tripod that could all fit into a back pack. The images were all taken between midnight and 4AM from the publicly accessible areas around the complexes. The long exposures blur the distinction between the environment and the buildings, but they still leave enough information for us to project a social and economic context onto the buildings — based as they are on our experience or lack of experience of such housing complexes. The result are photographs that connect to our recent social and economic history but with surfaces and colour balances resonant with the history of painting.