The Romans gave today’s Black Forest the name “Silva Nigra” and were afraid to enter the inaccessible terrain, which was covered with dense, dark primeval forest and populated by wild animals. The dense crowns let no light in. It was dark and eerie in the forest. The Black Forest is an archetypal German landscape and equally the most famous German forest — la forêt-noire, the black forest.

Jeannette Petri moved from Frankfurt to Freiburg, the city that borders directly on the Black Forest — and was overwhelmed by the sinister, dark forest. The photographs taken in 2021 with their dark blue, almost black colouring, she says, could only have been taken in the Black Forest. The fears of the Romans transported to the present day. Here, creepiness and Hitchcockian suspense are mixed. The series asks questions, such as: “what does the forest give us in troubled times?” “what protection does the forest offer us?” and finally: “how much have we disconnected ourselves from nature?“

Jeannette Petri. Born 1974 in Düsseldorf. Studied photography and film with Lewis Baltz and Heiner Blum at the HfG Offenbach. After graduating, she published her own female hip hop magazine “Anattitude”. Scholarships in London and Paris. Then five years in Brussels. In 2022 she published the books “Dear Oma” and “Dark Wald”. She lives in Freiburg and works for various magazines and companies.

jeannette-petri.com
instagram.com/jeannettepetri

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