This photographic work is the iconic record of a communication process. It is not a random dialog between two photographers, but a reaction with the image to a pictorial given, whereby the »being addressed« by the image is followed by an »image response«. In a secondary reception, however, these »remarks from outside« do not prove to be mere comments on the image, but rather integrative components of an overall concept.
The photographs by Elisabeth Kraus, which revolve around the phenomenon of »nature« as vegetation in the urban environment, serve as visual guidelines. The viewer’s gaze encounters a wall of matted branches. Trees and bushes push themselves in front of houses, which are initially only vaguely visible. In some of the pictures, the overgrowth contrasts with signals of civilization and time.
In his very first picture, Helmut Tezak introduces man as an antagonism to the assertive vegetation. Curtailing the natural-creative within himself, he forces himself into the alienating norms of his social conventions, succumbing to consumer habits. The illusionistic fencing off of cellular habitats with »nature« speaks of isolation and separation, of encapsulation and restrictions.
This photographic work moves between the two extremes of a nature that cannot be contained, of which man is also a part, and the parceled-out world that he has »prescribed« for himself.
from: Gisela Martens, FOTOHOF Info, issue 1/1984