The ambivalence in the pictures of South Africa is the subject of Stelling’s work. Through digital manipulations, the photographs have been cleaned up, for example by giving houses a new coat of paint. Inspired by David Hockney’s paintings, the images are characterised by graphic surfaces, shapes and an impression of lightness that underlines the ambiguity of the content and gives a subtle kind of unreal or rather surreal. Empty scenes are shown, or sometimes as a break, someone is looking into the camera directly though always at a certain distance. The viewer becomes an isolated observer of a scenario or one that is going to happen.

Jannike Stelling with half german, half swedish roots, was born 1986 in Cologne, Germany. In 2009–2015 she first studied photography at FH Dortmund. Meanwhile she has worked as free assistant to several photographers in Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin. In 2011 Jannike went for a semester to Lisbon, Portugal. Currently she is studying visual communication at the Berlin University of the Arts and will complete her studies in the masterclass of Prof. Fons Hickmann.