tierwald- by Frank Machalowski Is this fiction or reality? This is the question underlying the series – the images provoke the viewer question what they see. Is this a picture of a warm rain forest or a cold German mixed forest? Is this rhino really living in this forest or is it a giant zoo? The images in the series are in fact produced by combing two photographs – one taken in a forest and one taken at a zoo. I was photographing deer in a forest in Germany when I had the idea of simulating the image with a more exotic species, and this led to the series. The forest in this picture is the famous 'Teutoburger Wald' in the middle of Germany and the rhino is from Berlin Zoo. The animal photographs are mostly digital and the photographs of the forests are all analogue, taken on a medium format 6x6 camera, which are developed using traditional chemical processing before scanning the negatives.
