Introduction

In the midst of German everyday life, between the neat rows of stuccoed homes and cream-colored Mercedes taxis, photographer Peter Granser suddenly springs heralds of the Wild West on the unsuspecting viewer: adult citizens indulging in a game of Cowboys and Indians. These embodiments of freedom and adventure collide whimsically with their pedestrian surroundings - such as when the inhabitants of genuine-looking wigwams place camping chairs covered in light blue flowered fabric in front of their tent, or when cowboys stand patiently on a street corner somewhere in the Ruhr Valley waiting for their bus.
 But the photographer, born in 1971, is not one to stand back and mock. Instead - as in his earlier works on Alzheimer's patients or artificially created senior citizen communities in the USA - he makes a serious attempt to explore the identity of his subjects. The German cowboys, it would seem, do not waste their time pondering who they actually are and what their role is in the world. Casual and carefree, the dust-covered gunslingers pose next to sandals-with-socks wearers, or a southern sheriff is seen nosing his horse through a traffic-calmed zone. The costumed people whom Granser photographed give their play instinct free rein - and that's what allows them to enter the real land of opportunity: their imagination.
© Andreas Langen