Mouth, teeth and jaw vice: the absurdity of dentistry and correctional gear are brought to you by @maximilian.glas. Currently resident @fabricaresearchcentre in Italy the German photographer wants to work on Sci-Fi-Porn next. We think that's a brilliant idea, futuristic randomness is definitely underrated.

What is your fascination with mouth, teeth and jaw vice?

I think, I am attracted by how much it disgusts me. I am quite sensitive to everything that has to do with bones or teeth or the spine. It really triggers me when people talk about surgery or broken bones or anything like that. My blood pressure drops and I become really pale. I remember blacking out when I lost a milk tooth as a kid. Funnily enough, my girlfriend is studying dentistry. That’s also where some of the props and the found images come from.

If you had to describe yourself to a blind person, which 5 words would you use?

According to the online-celebrity-look-alike-finder I look like a mix of the actors Tom Tailor (The Dark Tower) and Alex Lawther (The End of the Fucking World). Maybe that helps a person that has lost their eye-sight only recently. For someone who is blind since birth, I would say: creased T-Shirt, edged face, Nivea Dry Comfort 48h, rather thin hair, but a lot of it.

When you go grocery shopping, what are the 5 articles you always buy?

I always buy peanuts, yoghurt and salad. They are a crucial part of my dietary habits. Not really grocery-related, but still important to my shopping life: I love OBI and Hellweg – and hardware stores in general. This fantastic mix of raw materials and strange objects. The high ceilings and the monitors with shitty videos explaining why Uhu Endfest 300 2-K-Epoxid Glue can change your life forever. I enjoy this aura of opportunity that you get in hardware stores. Anything is possible there.

Where from Germany do you come from, how did it influence your photography?

I grew up in a small town in southern Bavaria, 60 kilometers from Munich. There is not a lot to do, also not a lot of art going on. Most people there like to stick to their traditions – beer, cars, town festivals, soccer and firefighter clubs. I often felt a bit left out as I was afraid of drinking and really sucked at playing soccer. There are no concrete visual or cultural influences from there that I could point out in my work. However there is this visual structure that a lot of my photographs have: Most of the space in the photo is taken up by mundane, everyday stuff. It’s a safe zone for the viewer. Everything is clear and familiar. And then there is one spot of concentrated absurdity that rips everything apart. Maybe my backstory shows itself in this rather violent act of re-arrangement.

Now, you work for a kind of creative lab for Benetton in Italy – during lockdown. What does this weird phase of semi-isolation do for your work and creation? Tell us a bit more about what you are doing there and how it feels and what it results to.

I am currently doing a residency at Fabrica. It’s a fantastically weird place. They call it a communication research center, but I think no one really knows what it is. We are 15 designers and photographers collaborating on projects to raise awareness to different social issues and we work on personal projects. For me, it is the best thing that could have happened during the lockdown. It gives me a reason to do something every day and a structure that I welcome very much in the uncertainty of the pandemic. Because of social distancing, I am doing a lot more still life work.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What would be yor dream project.

In the last few months I experimented with incorporating fashion into my work, which was great fun. I like that there is space and also a need to go new visual ways in fashion photography. But I am also always interested in the way photography can shape society and how the medium itself works – this leads me more into the direction of fine art. I’ll try a balancing act between the two worlds.

I am currently researching on the topic of transhumanism and I stumbled upon the genre of Sci-Fi-Pornography. I would love to do a documentary project about the production of these films. It’s a bit bizarre, but I think it could a really interesting window to sexuality in a transhuman future. That’s my dream project for now.