Gesellschaft beginnt mit Drei
Andrzej Steinbach

In 2015 Andrzej Steinbach published the photo book Figur I, Figur II, which included portraits of two women. In his new book he extends this circle, using photographs to tackle the question, why should we distrust binary systems of organization and turn to triadic configurations? Steinbach begins his photographic exploration with the classical format of the group or family portrait. All the models involved are turned to the camera and direct their gaze at the viewer. But we only ever see a single person centre-frame; the others have been cropped. The models switch positions, and clothing, in the series of images: this creates deliberate confusion and the three-person constellation keeps going out of order. The title Society Starts at Three is based on the essay of the same name by Ulrich Bröckling and is Steinbach’s successful attempt to convert this idea into photographs.