Delhi Photo Festival 2015: Verena Andrea Prenner's "Contained" series

Verena Andrea Prenner finished her Master’s in sociology in 2013 with a thesis on prostitutes in the Viennese red light district. After her studies, she moved to Israel and Palestine and worked on various artistic photography projects.

Since February 2014 she has been a freelance photographer for the art film production company NOPROCESS, implementing free art projects as well as commissions. Her works has been shown in national as well as in international exhibitions.

In 2002, the Israeli government started building a so-called security wall between Israel and the Palestinian territories with the aim to protect the Israeli population from Palestinian terror attacks.

Due to that security fence, the daily work of the Palestinian taxi drivers has been radically restricted. Since the construction of the wall, they are no longer permitted to pass the checkpoint and take passengers to their desired destination on the Israeli side.

This restriction has not only impacted them economically but also psychologically and emotionally. The Palestinian inhabitants need a special permission to be allowed to move outside the occupied territories.

“We feel like animals in the zoo”, a statement made by one of the taxi drivers during the interviews compelled and inspired the theme for this series.

The costumes that appear to be like animals are made out of waste and used plastic bags to bring attention to this area, which suffers due to neglect and lack of waste disposal facilities.

The majority of waste is either thrown into landfills or is burnt in urban areas, resulting in health and environmental problems.

Verena Andrea Prenner finished her Master’s in sociology in 2013 with a thesis on prostitutes in the Viennese red light district. After her studies, she moved to Israel and Palestine and worked on various artistic photography projects.

Since February 2014 she has been a freelance photographer for the art film production company NOPROCESS, implementing free art projects as well as commissions. Her works has been shown in national as well as in international exhibitions.