»Das Phantom« by Jenny Schäfer [SB-003]

In »Das Phantom«, Jenny Schäfer invites us into an in-between world: not fully comprehensible or tactile, yet there; a place to inhabit, beyond a fully alienated reality. In SB-003, Jenny Schäfer documents three visits to Disneyland Paris. The first visit (1993) was her father's idea. He is the initial fan, as Disneyland's quasi egalitarian use of all senses and the subtitled animated films were almost casually accessible for people with a disability. In subsequent visits in 2011 and 2021, Jenny captures her Disneyland impressions on camera. One time, for example, she circles the park grounds and documents its outer perimeters. Over the years, Jenny remains a fan, if ambivalent. By now, she visits with her own child.

In this tapestry tightly interwoven with the private and personal, we mainly see images of facades and built scenery. From the middle of SofortBooks' third issue, Elif Akyüz’ text contribution “The most pleasurable of all possible worlds” unfolds, illuminating the phenomenon and person Disney, as well as the historical developments, and then-current philosophical thought on emerging cinema and mass entertainment, the pure commercialism of the postwar world, and the dazzling stories of capitalism.

However, the photos framing the text bluntly show: every facade is a fragile system, and as such prone to cracks and tearing. SB-003 takes a look at these complex structures and refrains from dismissing them a priori as superficial. Rather, any shopping mall must be considered as an entirely human site: build by humans, put to use, and used by humans. Disneyland, after all, is not fantasy, but a real place, with real humans, and real desires.

As we struggle to manifest this kind of place as something beyond reaffirming capitalism, we keep pondering the question: Is it possible to conceive of our wishes and desires as something real, no matter how ghostly, phantom-like they appear to us in this world? Even if we only perceive them through a distorted reflection, do they perhaps after all mirror a true longing, the one for the best of all worlds?

On the back side of Elif Akyüz' text, in between the in-between worlds of Jenny Schäfer, a pattern unfolds and refolds. Mandy Knospe’s angry four-fold fist sucker-punches us straight into the next dimension.

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Published by SofortBooks in October 2023
Edition of 105 (Zine) + 15 (Edition)

Photo Zine
Edition of 120, 200x285mm, 40pp + 8p fold-out, saddle stitch sewn.
Printed in Moss & Bisque on Circle Offset White 110g & Clairefontaine Trophée Rosa 120g at Risofort.

Photo Zine + Fine Art Photo Print
Edition of 15, 210x300mm,
on Fuji Crystal Archive DP II, numbered & signed by the artist

Edition Split: 50 (Jenny Schäfer) / 50 (SofortBooks) / 10 (Elif Akyüz) / 10 (Mandy Knospe)