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Heilerin, Iquitos, 2023
von • by Anja Schlamann

www.schlamann.com

Counters. This is the title under which Anja Schlamann created

what is probably her most famous series of photographs, but the

pictures have long since come to show more than just the pieces

of furniture that give them their name. Since 2004, the artist has

devoted herself to the global diversity of places and forms of selling.

What began as a documentary examination of functional retail

furniture has developed into a multi-layered investigation. The

artist’s background as an architect shapes this view. Schlamann

has used an analogue large-format camera to document sales
areas on five continents: from shops to improvised stalls, often

with no more than simple mats and blankets – or right there in

the middle of dusty ground. Shop counters, which had originally

been the central motif, are increasingly losing their significance or

are missing altogether. We are showing three of her most recent

photographs. They were taken at markets in Latin America and

illustrate the further development of the subject. The open sales

areas in which the goods – from pumpkins to medicinal herbs –

are presented often reflect an informal economy characterized by

mobility and spontaneity. “Shop counters” raises expectations that

the new works ironically break. The open, flexible alternative to

our idea of an orderly salesroom draws attention to social and

economic tensions; an order beyond Western consumer culture that

nevertheless has its own logic. Would we buy vegetables that are

offered on a blanket at the roadside? Why is a table in our markets

so self-evident that its absence is irritating? The series highlights this

discrepancy without explicitly judging it. Instead, it manages to offer

opens up room for reflection: on order, encounter and the deeper

meaning of supposedly banal pieces of furniture.