Alexandra Polina

Nowhere else in Hamburg can you hear so many different languages at the same time as in Steindamm. It is a street where everything coexists; Oriental restaurants, illegal prostitution, diamond sales, mosques, sex shops, a methadone clinic and various shops with products from all over the world. Steindamm-Atlas shows the local community in all its variety and visual richness. Alexandra Polina explores these local communities with all their unique personal styles, capturing the stories of the street through details and celebrating their individual aesthetic choices.

Raised as a minority in a multi-ethnic city in Uzbekistan, Polina's work is driven by loud, bright colours and rich textures. She likes to break with the classic idea of aesthetic categories and emphasises the mixture of everything that does not fit within the beauty standards of Western society. Other recurring themes in her work are migration and identity, especially their social and emotional aspects.