Nils Stelte

Between documentation and distortion, Renaissance explores the broad supply of spiritual eclecticism in urban communities that strive for stress relief. In forests, community halls, hospitals and hotel lobbies, urbanites gather for rituals apart from major religions in the search for mental catharsis and regeneration. Although emerging as an individual psychological burden, stress is a societal symptom conquering everyday life and condensed in the city.

Searching for security, relief and optimism, its dwellers perform symbolic acts to replace their previous outlook on life with new meanings and altered experiences. In seemingly staged photos, Renaissance shows individuals in the quest for the means to overcome personal crises. These operate between self-optimisation and self-realisation, between spiritualism and pragmatism, and add up to a list of possibilities designed to make us resilient.

Nils Stelte (Berlin, 1989) is a Berlin-based photographer. He is a graduate of Ostkreuz School of Photography where he was mentored by Ute Mahler. He holds a BA in Social Sciences from Humboldt University Berlin. Using his background in the social sciences, his work explores changing socio-political beliefs and examines their influence on the individual. His project In Security documents the mounting of contemporary security apparatuses. Showing both their material and symbolic dimensions, Nils’ work portrays how they reflect and even subtly contribute to the state of insecurity that defines our contemporary moment, rather than on a macro but on an individual level. His latest work, Renaissance, deals with how to overcome a personal crisis and  quickly return to a pre-crisis status. Between documentation and distortion of reality, it collects current rituals chosen by city dwellers aiming to deal with stressors and their longing for ways to step up their resilience.