03/24/2026

The Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord offers unique photographic motifs. Today, this monument of a purely functional heavy industry can be perceived as art. What used to drive Germany once stands still today and has lost its purpose.

I have summarized the especially graphic-looking motifs from the industrial park in this article. The center of these compositions are line, surface and color. It is about the graphical structure and not the spatial.

The photos can often be perceived as a composition of two-dimensional forms. This can also work where three dimensions are still clearly visible. I have completely omitted helpful landmarks for photos such as sky or horizon. And only on a few photos a floor is recognizable or a structure can be clearly named.

A staircase here, a door there, many screws, rivets, some grids, water. But what exactly is all this? What does a single photo show? Could it get a name that refers to the earlier function of the depicted? The recordings should give space for imagination and liberation from purpose.

I divide the photos into five sets with three motifs each, which are close to each other in their appearance and place of creation.

The last set has a very clear spatial structure. I think it fits well with the other photos and can still be understood as surface and color.

Set One

Large areas and their earthen colors dominate here. The spatial is in the background. Corrosion and weathering are prevalent.

Set Two

Here, too, a lot of weathering and corrosion. In addition, a prudent floor paints delicate green surfaces into the picture.

Set Three

The dominating tone is light grey, only moderately weathered, steel. A staircase and a grid cage are clearly recognizable as a structure of lines.

Set Four

The special feature of these photos are surfaces of different shades of blue, complemented by earth-colored corrosion on light background.

Set Five

Of all photos, this set shows the clearest spatial structures. They can still be understood as areas. The sheary lime tones and the obvious effect of moisture are characteristic.

All photos were taken in 2023 and 2024 with the Canon EOS R5. I only slightly circumcised the images after taking them. Since I did not work with a shift lens, perspective adjustments were made, where the parallelism of the structures demanded it or in reality was also given.