Albrecht Tübke

“One of the hallmarks of Tübke's work in his other portrait series such as 'Youth' and 'Citizens' has been the relaxed composure and openness of his subjects, they are totally compliant with, and unphased by the whole portraiture process, there seems to be a genuine empathy between photographer and subjects, but that cannot be said about the 'Twins' series, these sessions, one feels, have been altogether more tense, a resonance of negotiation and compromise seems to reside here, sympathy seems to replace empathy. The age and sex of the different pairs varies, as if to emphasise that what you are witnessing here is not polarised by considerations of generation or gender but it is something symptomatic of the relationships of these twins and the way in which they confront the world. There are inherent dangers in generalising of course, but there is something happening in these photographs that seems to be echoed by each pair of twins, nothing overtly obvious, but so much is left unsaid, so much concealed. ”