Gerald Forster – LightYears project

The LightYears Project explores the connectivity of humanity united in space and time.

Since 1994, Gerald Förster traveled five continents to document the diversity of

indigenous cultures. Using portable lighting equipment designed specifically for field

work, the subjects are bathed in light and are momentarily lifted out of their ordinary

context of emblematic geography and physical culture while an abstract background

establishes a common ground to all of them. Who are these strangers that look so

familiar?

The LightYears Project celebrates the beauty of difference and emphasizes a

communality of wisdom, dignity, integrity and strength of character shared by all

humans. Diametrically different cultural and environmental conditions still translate into

specific facial expressions and body language shared between a pedestrian in New York

City and a Holi warrior in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea.

Undeniably, the project includes elements of curiosity of the other, of joy of travel, and of

love of mankind in general. From a documentary point of view the project conveys a

sense of loss in individuality and variety of cultures. In the context of the LightYears

project, the purpose of traveling is to learn the common language of mankind, and to lose

the fear of the unknown by sharing visual experiences.

geraldforster@