Valentina Seidel’s work entitled Eigen Brot features portraits and still-lifes of creative outsiders within our society. She photographed sculptors, poets, painters and bon vivants living on the margins of our general awareness. Seidel is fascinated by the artistic collaboration with people for whom individuality and their own artistic practice are part of the expression of their personality. The photographs were taken over a period of four years in an intense, process-based dialogue with the persons portrayed, in their living environment. - Seidel’s photographs are complemented by a novella written especially for the book by writer Kathrin Schmidt entitled Die Mechanik des Kniefalls.