1986: the eighties are half over. In April the reactor melts down in Chernobyl, the Cold War staggers toward its end, Helmut Kohl is chancellor, AIDS is just being perceived as a pandemic threat here too, and affluent society begins to regard consumption as a leisure pleasure. In this year Michael Kerstgens, then a student at the Gesamthochschule Essen (formerly Folkwangschule), received a grant with the task of engaging photographically with the theme of leisure.