The triptych presented here is part of a series of photographs about service areas in Germany.
On the outskirts of European cities – mirroring a phenomenon originating in the United States – the shortage of meeting places has forced young people to adopt “non-places” – anonymous, standardised spaces – and to make them into spaces for socialisation.

Urban architectures without defined users become colonised, and their planned usage becomes the framework for new relationships. These periodic “invasions” show to what extent the defined character of a place can be subverted by the initiative of individuals or groups who are able to reinterpret urban space. The new meeting places are service areas, shopping-centre car parks, communal areas in large architectural complexes and bus stations.

The work presented captures and expresses an iconography of these places which has already become part of the collective imaginary and the stage set of the periphery: cement, cold lights, customised cars, young people wearing the latest clothes, music blaring out from powerful loudspeakers.