Stefan Koppelkamm. Palermo

“Is it even possible to portray a place like Palermo without walking into the trap of the picturesque?” The photographer Stefan Koppelkamm (*1952 in Saarbrücken) asked himself this question and immediately responds in the form of the photo series Lavori in Corso: yes, one can. During his visiting professorship at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Palermo, he used his camera to document what, for him, characterizes Palermo. It is not the Gothic and Baroque façades of churches and palaces, but instead views of a medieval city center and a modern periphery, with workshops, gas stations, back courtyards, small market stalls, or idle construction sites in the back country. Koppelkamm’s images tell the story of a city that at first glance clings to its past yet at the same is persistently committed to progress, and is also always good for surprises.