To be on view, 2004-

In the summertime, beaches are traditionally overcrowded. And even if we officially rave about empty, white beaches under palm tress, just like we see in the advertisements, most people secretly dream about the turbulence of being packed in together with loads of other people, observing the beautiful and ugly bodies about which we can marvel or laugh.

How else can we explain the seasonal run to the same old vacation destinations. Even Markus Henttonen (born 1976 in Lahti Finland) took off to the south to devote a photo series to this phenomenon. "It's interesting how the presence of people changes an environment. And it is also interesting to look at and observe something more closely, like how an individual behaves as part of a crowd," he says about his excursion into the vacation paradise. In fact, the intentions are so analytical, the view so detailed, as if directed towards interesting, active cultures through a microscope from above. Nothing which happened on the Costa Brava, in Brazilian Salvador de Bahia and on Tenerife since the summer of 2003 escaped the lens. With some, the much sought after images of lemmings and roasted chickens are confirmed with a quasi-scientific sobriety, from others arise a rhythm of chance and a never-ending decorative pointillism from underground in the saturated or bleached out colors of nature.

written by Dr. Boris v. Brauchitsch