Playing with Time

Aperture, sensitivity and exposure time determine how a photograph is made. But while aperture and sensitivity have practical limits, exposure time can be extended almost indefinitely. Exposure time changes how much time a single image contains. Seconds, minutes or hours can overlap within one exposure, creating something the naked eye could never see in quite the same way.

In this sense, every photograph is a play with time. It captures a moment, condenses a period of time or preserves something already in the process of disappearing. Yet photography itself cannot stop time – it merely changes what remains visible of it.

Past and Present

History is not found only in archives. It is inscribed in landscapes, buildings and objects, shaping places long after their original use has ended.

Zeitspiel explores these connections between past and present. The starting point might be a landscape, a photograph, a historical account or a change that has become almost invisible. Research and documentation inform the work from the selection of places and subjects through to their artistic interpretation.

The result may take the form of an ongoing photographic documentation or develop into an independent project.

Artistic Practice

Zeitspiel is the photographic and artistic practice of Adam Vradenburg. Its focus is on long-term documentation and historically grounded projects that make the past visible or bring it into dialogue with the present.

Folgelandschaften / Afterscapes

Disused open-cast mines, former borders, abandoned industrial sites and fields left to grow wild tell of uses that have disappeared while the landscape remains.

Folgelandschaften – or afterscapes – is a long-term photographic documentation of such places. It explores landscapes shaped as much by past interventions and uses as by what happens after those uses come to an end.

The documentation extends far beyond energy landscapes while also providing the starting point for more extensive works.

Hausbrand: Energy Afterscapes

Hausbrand grew out of the documentation of energy and post-mining landscapes.

The project brings together contemporary landscape photography, historical imagery and the recorded experiences of people who lived and worked in these places. It tells of how energy production has transformed landscapes and regions and shaped ideas of work, prosperity, progress and home.

What began as photographic documentation has developed over the years into a broader historical and artistic project. The first results will be published at the end of 2026, with a book publication planned for summer 2027.

Documentation and Interpretation

The work of Zeitspiel is grounded in real places, historical events and recorded experiences. Historical images and documents are generally reproduced without alteration and accompanied by source information.

Artistic freedom begins where historical accounts are visualised anew, lost imagery is reinterpreted, or different sources and layers of time are brought together.

This is at the heart of Zeitspiel: not to reinvent history, but to make it visually tangible and bring it into the present. Throughout the work, the distinction between historical source, contemporary documentation and artistic interpretation remains traceable.

Collaboration

The work of Zeitspiel does not happen in isolation. Depending on the project, historians, designers and other specialists contribute their expertise. Equally important is the exchange with archives, museums, academic institutions, companies, associations, contemporary witnesses, and individuals who make their knowledge or private collections accessible.

Get in Touch

Do you work with a place, historical subject or collection that might relate to one of our projects? Do you have information to share, material you would like to make accessible, or an interest in exchanging knowledge?

Please feel free to contact us at post@zeitspiel.net.