Dietmar Eckell's trademark are photos of abandoned objects he discovers in the middle of nowhere. To do this, the self-taught photographer travels to the loneliest corners of the world and documents the things that have been forgotten. A new value is created from objects that have been written off: Dietmar's first book is called accordingly: "Restwert" - residual value. Downed aircraft, an old Soviet missile or a film set in the Moroccan desert - places where people have left their traces and where nature can slowly reconquer these legacies. To take his photos, Dietmar travels for several days, sometimes with his van, sometimes with boats or small planes. The pictures that emerge are spectacular and the stories behind the objects are exciting.
Therefore, it was a great challenge for Dietmar Eckell when he returned to Bangkok and had to go into a strict quarantine. The authorities guarded the room, there were no exceptions. Dietmar was locked in a small room. And like many others who suddenly had to spend a lot of time with themselves, within their own walls, Dietmar Eckell was also faced with the challenge that such isolation brings. Fortunately, as Dietmar tells it, his hotel room had a river view, so he was looking at a landscape in constant motion. At first, he paid attention to the boats - but soon only to the waves they produced. And so he began to photograph these tiny motifs. Not exciting at first glance, but, if you look closely, endlessly changing and varying. The title of the picture is also telling: it's the 840th picture, third detail. So one can imagine how many pictures were taken and how Dietmar Eckell spent the days in the lonely hotel room. And even if the abstract water pictures hardly have anything to do with the drone shots and exotic scenarios that are otherwise Dietmar Eckell's trademark, they do pick up on one of the themes he has always dealt with: the beauty of the ephemeral, which can endure in a photograph.
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