Leipzig-based photographer Erasmus Schröter is showing images from his photo series Contest in Künstlerhaus Bethanien. This series consists of large-format, colour portraits of young European men that Schröter photographed at various meetings and festivals of the Wave Gothic scene over the past four years.
The protagonists are in fierce competition with each other regarding the greatest admiration for their extraordinary appearance, aiming to provoke outrage with their consistent crossing of sexual, religious, and moral boundaries and taboos.
Pushing the boundaries with their obvious Narcissism, they illustrate the immense changes in European societies in an exemplary way.

Erasmus Schröter *1956 in Leipzig, left the GDR in 1985 and moved to Hamburg. Since 1997 Schröter has been living in Leipzig again.