Das Haus der Kempowskis

The photographs for this book were taken in anticipation of a concert by musician/photographer Gabriele Kostas in the home of late author Walter Kempowski in Nartum, near Bremen. They are not double exposures, nor were they digitally processed. Rather, what we are looking at is pure photography that reflects reality as the camera sees it. Kostas’s photography is possibly the most precise documentation of a kind of architectural alternative to the isolated suburban lifestyle. Kreienhoop House is alive with the light from the wealth of windows and mirrors, which let in the natural spaces of the garden and the surrounding meadows. Walls become porous, the indoors and outdoors merge—a world of its own, full of mysterious light refractions, silhouettes, and reflections that consolidate to form a striking portrait of this fascinating house.