Immobilis - Life on a campsite

Two years ago, Lieselotte and Bernd Bielke broke up their apartment in Berlin because they could no longer afford the high rent in the city. They moved to a camper on the “Erlengrund” campsite in Lower Saxony’s town of Gifhorn, where they used to meet their friends for weekends away. They expanded their camper, and now it is surrounded by several garden huts and a small conservatory. The Bielkes are just one of the families living year-round at “Erlengrund”. Many residents have a hard past behind them or have recently fallen upon difficult times. The campsite often starts out as a temporary solution, but becomes a long-term situation as the weeks and months go by. Proximity to nature, cheap leases and a friendly atmosphere help residents forget their crowded and provisional homes. The individual fates captured by Jonas Wresch in his multifaceted photos portray everyday life in this unusual community.

Jonas Wresch was born in Germany in 1988. Ever since he was at school, long periods abroad have been part of life for Jonas Wresch. In 2005 he spent three months on a language course in Moulins, France. After graduating from high school, he performed his civilian service in Seattle, USA. In 2008, he travelled to Bogotá, Colombia for the first time in order to take photographs. Many ensuing trips to the South American continent led to several photo series. In 2009, he started studying photography at the Hanover University of Applied Sciences and Arts and completed a six month internship with the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Wresch has worked as a freelancer for Stern, Cicero, Audi, Frankfurter Allegemeine Sonntagszeitung, the Volkswagen Foundation and others. With his work “Immobilis” he exhibited during the Lumix Festival 2012 in Hanover and won the “Deutscher Jugendfotopreis” (1st prize, category “on the way”). Currently he focuses again on South-America for new projects.