About Viktor
Viktor Hübner (*1988, Germany) received a master of fine arts in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019. He won several grants and honors, including the Rosanne Somerson Scholarship, a RISD Fellowship and a Fulbright scholar.
Hübner’s artistic practice unites a natural curiosity for other human beings and their fate. Wherever he goes, he often ends up in interesting or weird situations with people. These experiences are spurred when he starts to actively observing them and building up relationships. For his project ‘Distanz’, he hitchhiked from Jordan, through Israel, back to Germany traversing nine countries in only 82 days. Using a minimal amount of otherwise distracting gear and the goal to be a participant-observer to whatever situation he encountered. ‘Das Leben ist für uns.’, is based on a visit to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Northern Iraq and the war against ISIS in 2016. The body of work gives a temporary glimpse of the facets of the PKK, their ideology, aims, and influence. It includes extensive audio material and transcribed text to give an insight into the ideology of the party.
His ongoing project ‘The Americans I Met’ is a photographic and oral history project that collects portraits of, and conversations with, people that Hübner encountered during a series of hitchhiking trips across the United States. His journey represents an exploration of what it means to be American at this moment, and of the issues that affect Americans, both personally and politically.
Hübner’s motivation as a witness is simple: He believe in the importance of history. As a young boy, he was fascinated by the history of mankind and dreamt of becoming an Archeologist. This dream ended when he understood that he is simply not the person who sits for hours in a hole brushing away layer by layer of dust. Instead of recovering artifacts from dust, he records small layers of contemporary history through his words and lens.
Current city:
Cologne
Viktor Hübner (*1988, Germany) received a master of fine arts in photography at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2019. He won several grants and honors, including the Rosanne Somerson Scholarship, a RISD Fellowship and a Fulbright scholar.
Hübner’s artistic practice unites a natural curiosity for other human beings and their fate. Wherever he goes, he often ends up in interesting or weird situations with people. These experiences are spurred when he starts to actively observing them and building up relationships. For his project ‘Distanz’, he hitchhiked from Jordan, through Israel, back to Germany traversing nine countries in only 82 days. Using a minimal amount of otherwise distracting gear and the goal to be a participant-observer to whatever situation he encountered. ‘Das Leben ist für uns.’, is based on a visit to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Northern Iraq and the war against ISIS in 2016. The body of work gives a temporary glimpse of the facets of the PKK, their ideology, aims, and influence. It includes extensive audio material and transcribed text to give an insight into the ideology of the party.
His ongoing project ‘The Americans I Met’ is a photographic and oral history project that collects portraits of, and conversations with, people that Hübner encountered during a series of hitchhiking trips across the United States. His journey represents an exploration of what it means to be American at this moment, and of the issues that affect Americans, both personally and politically.
Hübner’s motivation as a witness is simple: He believe in the importance of history. As a young boy, he was fascinated by the history of mankind and dreamt of becoming an Archeologist. This dream ended when he understood that he is simply not the person who sits for hours in a hole brushing away layer by layer of dust. Instead of recovering artifacts from dust, he records small layers of contemporary history through his words and lens.
