ICUL CTION Special Edition ART A C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w Special Issue The works from yourMilchmädchenseries seem to belaboriously structuredto pursue such effective and at the same time thoughtful, evokativevisual impact: what was your working schedule like? Did you carefully plan each shot? Claudia Grünig: I think a "finished picture" shouldn't speak of the efforts and the many discarded attempts that have preceded it. It's great when it seems natural and logical - just as it is. However, until then it goes through many invisible processes. Many of my pictures let me go through a considerable time until they are created. In the process, they let me go through many attempts until they feel like showing themselves. When, how and under which aspects am I committed to "reality"? YES - NO - MAYBE is for me the flowing, sometimes challenging, but always inspiring process that allows images to emerge. Very often, my photographic works are composed of individual photos lying on top of each other. They consist of many individual layers. Among them there are semi-transparent and those from which parts have been cut out. Most of my works are - in the truest sense of the word - multi-layered in their creation. In this working process I invent the actual photo on the basis of the original motifs. This was not the case in my Milchmädchen/ Milkmaid cycle. These photographic works do not contain multiple layers and - apart from a few small interventions - no image processing. They were taken in my kitchen, which is not a staged space. I still find it every morning as it is. We have appreciated the way you captured the grammar of body language: how did you structured your shot schedule in order to