If you consider the word ‘collaboration’, what do you see? Two painters, working on the identical canvas? A cluster of ateliers, pinning fabric on a model? Perhaps even a bunch of musicians, improvising during a session within the studio? In most instances, you’ll imagine two or more people, together. But for photographer sisters Anna and Maria Ritsch, collaboration is something that happens 4 thousand miles apart.

Although Anna and Maria have their very own separate practices, in early 2020 they decided to begin the ‘ritschsisters’ collaboration, with Anna living in Latest York City and Maria based in Vienna, Austria. In 2021 they released The Act of Sitting, a visible exploration of people sitting of their homes, itself a response to the stasis of the COVID pandemic. Now, they return with Together Apart  (published by Pool), a young meditation on the transcendent, cross-Atlantic bond of sisterhood. 

In the quantity, striking pictures of body parts and wet skin are interspersed with quotidian images of garden chairs and cypress trees, forcing the viewers to forge connections between the differing images. The work is presented in two separate book blocks inside one single edition, and reasonably than specializing in a selected subject, allows the disparate images to form a dialogue all of their very own. It’s a piece that charts the emotional heft of each togetherness and separation, proving that physical proximity is just not a prerequisite for creative collaboration.

In a conversation over email, we chat to the sisters about their mode of visual storytelling, tender portrayal of femininity, and why individual authorship was left from the ultimate draft.

Please could you start by telling us about what initially inspired you each to create Together Apart?

The Ritsch Sisters: The project Together Apart got here about very naturally and out of the need to seek out a type of methodology and practice, a typical language for our work together while living on separate continents, with Maria living in Vienna and Anna in Latest York City. A piece we are able to at all times return to and pull from – a kind of foundation.

It allows for openness and exploration of our individual experiences and to know where we’re in our lives at this particular moment, what we see and why for instance certain motifs reappear in barely alternative ways throughout our work.

Are you able to tell me more about why you made the choice to present the edition in two separate book blocks?

The Ritsch Sisters: When working on the book we were on the lookout for a method to present this concept of together apart’, of being two individual beings yet connected to form a united vision. We felt that creating these two separate book blocks inside one book helped transform this idea into physical form. It also represents for us this concept of dialogue and allows us to be playful yet distinct with our visual storytelling. 

In what ways did living in separate cities in numerous countries inform the themes of the project?

The Ritsch Sisters: Living in separate cities in numerous countries definitely opens us as much as latest perspectives, ways of seeing and living, pondering, experiencing and enriches our dialogue.  It has been instrumental in shaping the themes of exploration, individuality and the seek for our own common language and lives.

“The choice that individual authorship takes a backseat was very essential to us. In our artistic practice, we deal with the essence of the work as a collective” – The Ritsch Sisters

I’ve noticed within the book you don’t specify which sister created which image. Was this an intentional omission, and what effect was it intended to provide?

The Ritsch Sisters: The choice that individual authorship takes a backseat was very essential to us. In our artistic practice, we deal with the essence of the work as a collective. It’s concerning the interconnectedness of our ideas, the exploration of our visual world together, and the profound connection we share as sisters.

What sorts of emotional states were you expecting to attract from viewers of the book?

The Ritsch Sisters: Our principal aspiration with Together Apart was to ignite a way of curiosity and playfulness within the audience. We don’t need to tell people what to think or present definitive meanings with our work. We’d prefer to challenge the viewer to be present and actively take part in exploring the works by creating their very own contextual understanding.

If anything, what do you’re thinking that persons are most definitely to misinterpret about this body of labor?

The Ritsch Sisters: People will at all times interpret works how they need to. Everyone will see something different in it and connect it to their very own experiences and internalised stories, and we’re okay with that.

What would you say is the totemic image of the series typically?

The Ritsch Sisters: For this project we tried to work very intuitively and collect a big archive of images to select from and pair them together,  creating latest dialogues that over time are allowed to vary. We do see recurring motifs and themes in our project, though the general idea of Together Apart is that these can change and evolve over time into latest visual explorations. Subsequently there intentionally isn’t one particular image that represents the project as an entire.

The pictures capture quite a young portrait of girlhood and femininity – was this something you intentionally wanted to precise?

The Ritsch Sisters: This happened quite naturally because it is a component of our story and our lives. Nevertheless it’s important to us to actively explore and discuss how one can portray men and women, in addition to how society perceives and represents femininity and masculinity, and we’re all for the nuances of this complex system and the influence of photography inside this topic. There may be immense beauty and power in having the ability to express ourselves freely without judgement.

Together Apart by the Ritsch Sisters is published by Pool and is available now.

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