Beer Stories

By Selina Ly

I started this photo series because the amount of empty beer bottles lying around Essen in strange places impressed me. I called my series “Beer Stories” because there is always a story behind the bottle and the spot in which the drinker left it. As a viewer you might think about the story behind it and guess what type of person drank it. Some photos make you feel more confused and raise more questions than others. The viewer needs to be more creative in finding an explanation or coming up with the story. Like in photo “1” and “4”. A more vivid photo is “6”, which I intentionally put as last one for separating it from the empty beer bottles. This photo gives the viewer the other side of the story and might raise questions like, where is the empty beer bottle going to end? Maybe next to the trash bin, like in photo “3”, or maybe those people might take the bottles home. The other photos might be the typical “Wegbier” that should be put next to the trash bin for “Pfand” collectors or leaving the beer bottle in a bush at the university, maybe after the summer fest, and lastly, a pre-drinking situation on the park bench. There is more meaning behind empty beer bottles lying around, which one would firstly regard as trashing up the neighborhood. If you look closely and think for a minute, however, one realizes how much these bottles tell a story. In the end the only truth lies behind the bottle, which the viewer can only guess.

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