RAY 2018 EXTREME is already the third edition of the international photography triennial RAY, presenting outstanding contemporary photography at venues all over Frankfurt and the region. Especially in the age of digitally circulating information, the extreme is booming. So the more extraordinary and marginal an image, the more alluring it is. In the five distinct main exhibitions (Self / Territories / Environments / Bodies / Nomads) the invited artists reflect upon global socio-economic transformations as well as the role and function of photography that focuses not on the norm, but on the exception. In addition, a number of RAY 2018 Partner Projects and a whole bunch of independent but related exhibitions (RAY Plus) round up the program.

So far I only had the chance to see the EXTREME.Bodies exhibition at Museum Angewandte Kunst. But it definitely made me hungry for more. I’m always a sucker for thematic exhibitions that combine different views, aesthetics and techniques. They kinda proof the point that there’s not just one way of doing things, not just one point of view on a certain topic. Antoine d’Agata’s extreme approach towards documentary photography stands in stark contrast to the aestheticism of Arno Rafael Minkkinen or to the video art of Jamie Brunskill. And yet all three of them totally caught my interest.

I’ll be definitely back for more next week when I return to Frankfurt. RAY 2018, check it out if you’re around!