Filmräume

This project, Filmräume, is an altar for the empty room in movies. The collection comprises more than four thousand stills gathered from over 1,500 films, including movies that cover the complete history of film from 1898 until today.

Role
  • concept,
  • collection,
  • book design,
  • photography
Client
  • self-initiated

Filmräume is based on an idea by the graphic designer Katharina Frick. I started the collection in 2011 and today, with more rooms being added constantly, the project is still ongoing.

“Are empty rooms holy?” asks Jack Kerouac, the narrator in Robert Frank’s and Alfred Leslie’s short film “Pull My Daisy”.

The empty rooms in the films of Yasujirô Ozu are classified with their own genre. Named “pillowshots”, these carefully composed, calm pictures set the mood between scenes and add to the tranquility of Ozu’s storytelling.