ROSPHOTO together with Backlight Festival presents the series Passers-by by German photographer Ivo Mayr.

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This photography project is the result of my 2007 summer scholarship. My task in this project was to create an artistic portrait of Koblenz which is a city in Germany.

This city's characteristic features are built by various factors such as geography, architecture and, above all, the people that inhabit it. I decided to create an image of Koblenz out of the images of its inhabitants. In order to get closer to the people and the city I used a somewhat aggressive tactics, approaching passers-by directly and choosing the ones that attracted attention by the way they dress or move.

I photographed these people not standing on the ground but as though hanging, holding on to walls, trees and lantern poles, like things that we find in the street and put them in a place where they are most likely to be noticed by their owners. By this method I tried to convey the uniqueness of Koblenz.

The project has two aspects, documentary and historical. When photographing the passers-by, I used characteristic places of Koblenz as settings. Thus, I tried to show from a new angle such well known city sights as the German Corner (tongue of sand at the junction of Mosel and Rhein rivers, named after the Deutsche Orden who owned the territory in the XIII century) or historical city center with its picturesque narrow streets. I also wanted to draw the viewer's attention to some of the not best-looking places in Koblenz.