Sandra Ratkovic: Merseyside and Brexit

The desire to depict other places and cultures is the driving force behind Sandra Ratkovic’s photographs. To do so does not require any exoticism on her part, but a close look at everyday culture and its contradictions. That is why her most recent projects did not lead the German photographer to far-distant lands, but to a country that has become a stranger to itself. In England, Brexit divides minds, the economy, and politics, and leaves everyone looking at an uncertain future. In Merseyside County, her detailed shots elicit a portrait of a country where serious patriotism and kitsch permeate each other. The less they are differentiated, the stronger the feeling of inner conflict there is underlying them. That these photographs are at the same time replete with sensitivity toward the people shown is what makes Ratkovic’s subtle art so special.