at grandma’s. without grandma.

Jule Ehlenz (2001)

Personal identity within intergenerational family history, documented through analogue double exposures of self-portraits and family photographs, in the preserved house of the photographer's grandmother.

Description

at grandma's. without grandma. (German: bei oma. ohne oma.) by Jule Ehlenz, made in 2023 in her late grandmother's house, left almost exactly as it was when she died, examines how family archives and domestic spaces shape identity after loss. Ehlenz positions herself as a trace seeker in her grandparents' photographs, objects, and rooms, asking what remains of a person once they have died and what is carried forward in the bodies and lives of those who follow.

Visually, the series moves between views of the preserved house and reworked family photographs from her grandparents’ archive. In some images, Ehlenz appears as a ghostlike presence in the rooms through double exposures; in others, she inserts herself beside her grandparents in their youth. The mood is somber and meditative, echoing a sense that both the house and the memories tied to it hover between presence and disappearance.

Technically speaking, the project is defined by a committed analogue practice that extends from on-site double exposures on film to darkroom work, where self-portraits and archival photographs are combined on photographic paper. This slow, hands-on process produces unique prints that, like the memories they invoke, will themselves fade, turning each image into a kind of photographic palimpsest where past and present share the same fragile surface.

The project’s exhibition history has developed through curated group presentations. In 2024 it was shown in the exhibition "In Erinnerung an..." at Artists Unlimited e.V. in Bielefeld, which focused on artists working with family archives and childhood locations. In 2025 it was selected by HSBI lecturers for the "Out of Bielefeld" exhibition at the 35th Month of Photography Bratislava festival, marking its entry into an international festival context.

Behind the work

After her grandmother died roughly twenty years after her husband, Jule Ehlenz returned to the family house and found it almost exactly as it had been left: cups still in the dishwasher, curtains drawn aside, pillows arranged on the beds. This unchanged domestic setting, frozen between everyday use and abandonment, became the starting point for the project.

Quotes by the photographer

"Analogue prints are unique pieces that fade over time, like memories. Can they be archived—or even preserved?"

"For me, this loss is accompanied by the question of who I actually am. What remains of a person after their death, and what do I carry within me that connects us? I try to capture the pain of loss while at the same time creating a historical reference."

"What remains of a person, what happens to our memories of them and, above all: how much closeness remains and how can one regain it?"

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