Mr von Weech, how did you come up with the idea of ​​portraying people on their sofas?

Anne-Christin Sievers

Editor in the "Housing" department of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.

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It all started with Zarah Leander's red velvet couch.

In Munich I had sung a program with songs by the UFA lyricist Bruno Balz and then I really wanted to get to know his partner, the actor and painter Jürgen Draeger.

I was received nicely in his Berlin apartment and was allowed to sit down on the same sofa that Leander had first bequeathed to Balz and then to Draeger.

There I also met his new partner Pietro, their little daughter Valentina and her mother Orlaydis, with whom the two men had fathered this child on a beautiful, sensual afternoon in Cuba.

Then Valentino, Pietro's son from his first marriage, rang the doorbell.

I was so excited about this "other family" that I just had to photograph them together on the sofa.

From then on I only saw sofas everywhere.

This photo inspired me so much that I started photographing all my friends, acquaintances and strangers on their couches for three years.

How important is the couch, what role do you think it plays in the home and in life?

For me, the couch is the first atmospheric haven of peace that we have when we come inside from the warlike outside world.

You take off your coat there, take off your shoes, come to yourself.

This is where inner peace sets in, the brain switches off, becomes empty, and thoughts come up that one normally does not allow oneself.

The sofa is also the place where difficult discussions and emotional conversations take place.

From marital disputes to fathering children to afternoon naps, everything takes place there.

There's something very intimate about her.

What does your own sofa say about a person?

The couch reveals a lot about the person sitting on it - how they tick, what they value, how they live.

It doesn't matter whether it's a farmer's sofa, one from Ikea, an Art Nouveau model or a chic, upholstered baroque couch.

When you start paying attention, you can see how big the differences are.

Which sofa you choose is of course also a question of financial resources, but not only.

The Ikea sofa, for example, has its place when you're short on money, approach it pragmatically and need to set things up, but it's a level that you should eventually get past.

If you like it more sophisticated, you can buy stylish sofas relatively cheaply at flea markets and antique dealers.

It's more a question of the nursery: Whoever chooses tasteless, loveless things

usually got that big.

At the same time, all people have in common that they own some form of sofa, whether rich or poor: from the prince on the chaise longue in the castle, to the clochard on the concrete block at the roadside, to the bushmen on the wooden bench in the Kalahari desert.

Which of your models impressed you the most and why?

That was Susi Earth King, for me the Earth Queen of Zambia.

I met her in the Munich subway in the elevator, happily with her 9-year-old son, who was pushing her in a wheelchair.

Born in Zambia, she contracted polio at the age of four and was adopted by her family from Munich at the age of seven.

Because I liked her cheerful, positive manner, I asked her if she would take part in my project.

I draped her on her gray couch.

At first she didn't want her paralyzed legs and feet to be in the picture, but they are hers, as are her sleek, muscular arms.

I wanted to show her as the vibrant, beautiful woman she is, while still capturing the fragile.

Are you a couch potato yourself?

Yes and no.

It is not a question of "either/or", but of "both/and".

Sometimes I have to be a couch potato, rest, watch TV, eat chips and stare into space so I can get back to work.

For being very lazy, I'm quite a busy person.

My motto is therefore quite the opposite: get off the couch and turn on your brain, leave your comfort zone.

There is so much to do, for example for our environment, and everyone can make their small contribution.

That's what I'm trying to do with the book too: The main proceeds go to the Jane Goodall Foundation and to Topher White, who protects rainforests from poaching all over the world with modified smartphones.

The photo book "Couchgeflüster" by Albrecht von Weech has been published by Kastner Verlag, Wolnzach.