Altea Schmidts Federico

Altea Schmidts Federico: "I took this and my other pictures wearing nothing but a pair of red boots - and of course: Polaroid only."

The notorious KitKat Club is celebrating its 30th birthday this year. That makes the club five years older than the photographer Altea Federico. Selected guests celebrate sex, their fetish and electronic music in the legendary club and many other venues in Berlin. Guests give up their normal lives for a while and move into the twilight, a jungle. It is a world in which the outer attractions are key. This provokes or inspires

- depending on one's standpoint. The kinky community is exciting and Altea Federico tells us about this world with her pictures and texts from an inside perspective.

Her work also raises new questions about feminism and patriarchy. It is the devotion and celebration of sexual fantasies that requires strict rules. Altea does not want to be accused of promoting sexism and sexualizing women. She wants to live out her passion for darkness and borderline territories and works for this with great dedication and ambition.

Altea learned how to take Polaroid photos from her father,[...], who gave her a camera at an early age. Altea Federico moved to Berlin when she was 22 and soon started working at KitKat Club. First at the wardrobe, then as a manager. This is how she became part of a community that doesn't like to be photographed However, Altea's cautious approach and the analogue medium allowed her to build enough trust.[...]

Since 2024 Altea Federico has been working on new projects outside the Kinky Community. To avoid the puritanical rules and arbitrary moods of the social media algorithm, she has set up her own website mullstudio.org

-Gregor Hutz 

https://wedoartblog.tumblr.com/