1987-1993: studied Visual Communication at the Fachhochschule (University of Applied Sciences and Arts) Dortmund. 1991; guest studies at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst (Academy of Fine Arts), Leipzig.
Since 1993 freelance work as a photographer in the field of and on the margins of documentation.
The emphasis of my artistic/pictorial archaeological practice since 2006 is researching, processing, and re-contextualizing practically oriented pictorial collections from public archives. The original function of these photos – for example technical photographs for urban development or for security forces’ surveillance and registration – is expired today. In my processing, I reveal the surpluses of images not intended at the time of taking the photos and give visibility to the wealth of signs, which gain historical and aesthetic relevance with temporal distance. Most of the themes have to do with German postwar history. So far, the result has been extensive exhibitions and publications on East Berlin of the 1950s; the Berlin Wall; the archives of East Berlin’ domestic secret intelligence agency, the Stasi; and West German leftist terrorism.