Valentin Goppel – Zwischen den Jahren

The winning series by the German photographer and 2022 Leica Oskar Barnack Award Newcomer recipient, has now appeared as a photo book published by Gost Books. With 37 images, the large-format book offers a great opportunity to once again appreciate the touching pictures and experience the young photographer’s particular visual language.

On New Year’s Eve in 2020, Valentin Goppel began to photograph his friends and acquaintances in an attempt to both process and represent the disorientation he felt during the time of Covid. Through taking pictures of his friends he found a way to deal with the uncertainty. It was not difficult for him to explain to them the pictures he was looking for— they were all in the middle of the same situation and felt connected in a state of limbo.

The book’s title Zwischen den Jahren describes the time between Christmas and New Year—the time between years. It acts as a metaphor to explain the period of transition between child and adulthood, in addition to the sense of suspended time or paralysis between the time before the Covid pandemic and an unknown future.

Goppel’s series is a combination of observed and staged moments, and recreated memories. The young people they depict are often lit by the light of a phone or laptop, as they are pictured in small groups or alone in kitchens, bedrooms, on urban streets or in the midst of Covid-compliant nature. Where family groups are shown, often at dining room tables, the images reflect the silence and shared tension between the generations. As the book progresses, a sense of solitude increases – even those in groups often appear alone in contemplation. There is only one crowd scene in the book, incongruous, and jarring against the isolation which had become the norm.