Johann Husser (b. 1990) is a photographer born in Kemerovo, Russia, currently living and working in Cologne, Germany. Initially studying Spatial Planning, he switched to photography and received his BA in Photography from the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund in late 2017. He is currently pursuing a Post-Graduate Diploma in Media Arts at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and is a scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes.
His photographic and artistic practice is influenced by research on associative memories, theories of perception and psychogeographical notions of the built surrounding.
About Like seaweed tossed around in the ocean – words by Johann Husser:
Two was my favorite number when I was a child. I don’t have any siblings, so I don´t have a competitive nature based on family history/structure, but I felt the need to meet my parents expectations when I was in school. They moved to Germany when I was about 4 years old, and I always felt the pressure to do good and justify their moving here. Two was something I could settle for, being on second place, not getting all the attention, but at the same time being close enough to observe. Two is also the minimum number of people you need to built a relationship, excluding the one you can have with yourself, be it romantically or friendship etc. Two opens a dialogue and the perception you have or may have and creates distance or closeness, able to leave you „feeling like seaweed tossed around in the ocean“.
Like seaweed tossed around in the ocean is an inner conversation I have with myself and the circumstances I found myself in for the last two years, reflecting on memories I may or may not have from an early childhood, relationships and migratory backgrounds. It is an ongoing project, started in summer of 2020 where I try to question my own perception of my photographic practice and my photographs as such. Part of the result is an associative sequence of images, made since 2019 and onward.
