Provisional Installations

With the work “Provisional Installations“, Sebastian Keitel completed his studies at the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences in the summer of 2012; one year later, he was awarded the Promotional Prize of the Association of Freelance Photo Designers (BFF) for the best diploma work.
The images depict interiors of shanty dwellings in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Approximately four million people live here – 30% of the city’s residents – in loosely organized settlements. The UNO estimates that, since 2007, more than half the world’s population lives in cities. With this global rapid development of congested urban areas, the number of people who live in the sordidness of the slums also increases. “Aesthetically attractive for the viewer, this closeness is also a clear sign of the poverty in which many people are forced to live. Shanty dwellings are a growing problem globally. Sebastian Keitel is less interested in lamenting the situation than he is in making a phenomenon visible; his work is but one example of the living conditions of more than one billion people worldwide.” (Anna Gripp, “Photonews”)

Sebastian Keitel

Sebastian Keitel was born in Herford in 1983. He lives in Cologne and, with the support of VG Bildkunst, is currently working on a project on “illegal” migrants in Northern France.
Sebastian Keitel’s socially engaged projects, which are always connected to people and address socio-political topics, have brought him to many corners of the globe and have been premiered on several occasions, most recently with the Felix Schoeller Photo Award.
“For me, it is important that my pictures are visually loaded and captivate the viewer, but then pose questions that go much deeper,” Sebastian Keitel explains.
His works oscillate between document and fiction. “These two levels, a fascination for the material world and an empathy for the individual, lie at the core of the extraordinary quality of Keitel’s works.” (Prof. Roman Bezjak)