Far more men than I have ever been have worked their way through this self-absorbed city on the Rhine. Nevertheless, I can never avoid photographing it. And mostly when I’m standing still, waiting. I’ve even gone out to photograph the places that I find particularly horrible. Somehow you have to defend yourself against this architectural Cologne dreariness, I do it with my photos. There are two particularly dreamlike moments to see today, taken last Thursday. On the road for a reportage on a completely different topic, there is always a standstill. Time to switch off, to take in the surroundings, to see. But there’s nothing that wants to have an effect, or even could.

The eye suffers too

Finding a location in Cologne is almost an impossibility. Well, you can search, but not necessarily find. At least if you want it to look good, cosmopolitan and give the impression of a metropolis. That doesn’t usually work very well in Cologne, or the few places are so crowded with photographers that you can’t work at all. Well, I’m exaggerating here, but it really is the case that the few places are really photographed to death. On the other hand, a lot of TV crime dramas are filmed in Cologne, even those set in Duisburg or Düsseldorf. Simply because there are so many faceless, ugly and interchangeable locations.