alecia_ones |
Hika |
plüschzombie |
princess_puppetkitty |
Pustepluhme |
Takumi |
english below
Definition: Die Beschreibung des Begriffs Visual Kei setzt sich aus dem englischen Wort „visual“ und dem japanischen Wort „kei“ (was Gruppe, Herkunft oder System bedeutet) zusammen. Visual Kei ist ein in Japan etablierter Oberbegriff für visuell auffällige Musiker aus verschiedenen Musikstilen wie Punk, Gothic oder Metal und für ihre nachahmenden Fans, die Visus (manchmal auch Visuals) genannt werden.
english
Definition: The discription Visual Kei is composed by the english word visual and the japanese word kei (which means group, origin, system). Visual Kei is an in japan established collective term for visual eye-catching musicians from different styles of music like punk, gothic or metal and for their imitating fans called Visus (sometimes Visuals).
I photographed girls of the Visual Kei scene in and around berlin in the years 2006/2007. The origin of this movement stems from japan and reached almost exlusively due internet to Germany. The fans are dressed like their japanese rock idols, sometimes like their manga idols or like gothic lolitas. Visus are predominantly female so that I solely photographed 16 girls between 14 and 22 years old. This youth movement is not commercial and shocks gladly with selfmade outfits.
My portraits tell about individuality and the longing of girls growing up. Also they tell about the need for attention and show a way of youthful self-assertion and rebellion against the mass collection and social norms.
For the particular picture titles I use the nicknames of the Visus, because the protagonists mostly know each other under these names.