Cultures and landscapes shape each other in distinctive ways, but the dynamic is often subtle, even mysterious. German photographer Oliver Kern has been exploring that dynamic in his native country by seeking “strangely familiar images from everyday German life” which “capture characteristic atmospheres.” He takes his photographs on the road, in parking lots, at events, or in supermarkets, focusing on the relationships between people, structures, and the landscape, which is “only ostensibly unchanging, [but] in a permanent state of reconstruction.” Not surprisingly, the often-elusive sense of place is in the details and discrete symbols, not the grand ones, which “have long lost their meaning in people’s everyday lives,” Kern says. He has collected about fifty images taken over the course of his travels since 2002 for his new book, A German View, released earlier this month by Hatje Cantz Verlag.–Courtesy of the publisher.