Kopal comprises 1,224 Polaroids taken by Frank Mädler. Over a period of many years, since 1996, he has photographed his surroundings, his neighbourhood, and his milieu – until 2012 when his stocks of Polaroid film ran out. In a departure from his large-format photographs, the artist’s mindset for Kopal focused on small images, catalogued in different ways in the index: both chronologically, i.e. just as they appear in the book, and alphabetically, but also according to his own whimsical categories. So despite the multitude of photographs, tracking down certain images is simplicity enough, all of which makes for an interesting, self-charted voyage of discovery through the book, through time and through Frank Mädler’s environment.

Frank Mädler, *1963 in Torgelow, Germany. Lives and works in Leipzig.