Sippel, Dagmar

Dagmar Sippel, Paris, France

born 11.10.1961 in Schwalmstadt/ Treysa, Germany.
Lives in Paris since 1986.
 
1983 - 88  Art school GHK Kassel in Germany, student of Prof. Harry Kramer.
1989 Scholarship / Franco-German Youth Program, Bad Honnef, Germany.
1990 Selection for the " prize for young european photographers ",german Leasing AG, Bad Homburg.
1993 First prize in " Rencontre 93 ", Bonn ( President : Prof.Dr.L.Fritz Gruber ), Germany.

Self-Portraits

For twenty years I have been working on the problems of my own narcissism. All my photographs are conceived and shot by me alone. (I use a six-meter-long wire shutter release and a ten-second self-timer.) I am both the model and the photographer. Self-portraiture in general or rather Self-Representation is a language, a code that we deploy when we are with others and even when we’re alone.

First, there is the pose, mimicry, expression, vocabulary-our particular choice of words and costumes. It is about style, outfits (colors, shapes, smells).

Second, there are the things that a human wants around him- or herself: accessories, fetishes, badges. These are the things with which the subject surrounds him- or herself while offstage-beyond the camera- where she or he allows his or her life to unfold, to perform. All these things constitute the symbolic character (in German: Signal-Charakter), the determination of the place and the reflection of the transmitter’s universe.

For me, these elements are, at the very same time, my screen and the plan of projection of my surroundings. Other people are my mirror, and I am their reflection. Only with an eye to ones surroundings is it possible to leave one‚s mark.

In a real sense, I would like to designate myself Director of the Show of Feelings, of Situations and of Experience. The use of my own body, apart from other essential things like the conception, composition, and lighting that goes into creating my photographs, allows me to control both the direction and the action.

I am my own creator and, finally, my own product as well.

Public and Private Collections

Museu da Imagem, Braga, Portugal
Hotel Hopper, Cologne,Germany
Carnavalet, Museum of Paris  Paris, France
Solignac, Drac du Limosin
City Collection of Vigo,  Vigo, Spain
Neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst, Berlin, Germany
Visionneuse "Beauty", Pariser Jagd - und Natur Museum
private Collection of Prof. Dr. L. Fritz Gruber and  Renate Gruber, Cologne, Germany