Promised Land: an interview

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Interview between Miriam Nooi (050 Uitmagazine Groningen) and Ken Schles, August 1st 2005 regarding his project An Absence in the Presence of Things in the Promised Land exhibit at the Noorderlicht Gallery in Groningen, The Netherlands, which ran July 30th 2005 through October 9th 2005.

MN: For someone living in New York, Groningen is not what you would call next door. Yet you participated in an event as small as Noorderlicht. Why have you chosen Groningen (or rather they've chosen you?) to be the subject of your work?

KS: Well, I wouldn't call Noorderlicht small. It has an incredibly dedicated staff that works very hard to bring a distinct vision to the worldwide photographic community-and to the local community it serves. So its presence is, in terms of its reputation, very large and quite respected. It's the fault of Wim Melis and the people of Noorderlicht that I've attempted this project. We only have them to blame. They chose me. This project is part of a series of commissions they have begun to offer photographers from around the world: to come to Groningen and work on a subject, bringing their various perspectives. My work, in very general terms, centers on people in urban spaces. My first book, Invisible City, was my personal view of living in the East Village in New York City. With Invisible City, I explored my unique personal relationship to the place I found myself living in. I guess Wim wondered what I might do if I found myself in Groningen. This project, Promised Land, was the first of their commissions. Since then, a few photographers were asked to photograph Borgen and churches in
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Groningen Province. That project was just made into a book called Hidden Sites. The project called Island focuses on the island of Schiermonnikoog just off the coast. Noorderlicht calls these "Cooperative Projects."

MN: You were asked to look for those facets of the city of Groningen that form the character of Groningen, but are at the same time so common that even the inhabitants hardly notice them anymore. Whatdid you find and how did you capture them?

KS: To find the character of a place is a paradoxical task, and one could argue it is impossible to accomplish in any objective sense since, not only is the character always subjective, it is also ever-changing. Still, it is an interesting problem to pose nonetheless. I had to ask myself, before I even took any photographs, can a place even be defined in this way? I know it's done all the time-everywhere people characterize their experiences of a place and say, "Yeah, this is London," or "This is
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