Hassan J. Richter sees himself very strongly as a monumental document of East Germany and the consequences after the turn of 1989. He traces the wounds and changes also metaphorically elevating the local-historical experience to a general level of humanity. Dealing with success and crises, ups and downs, values and superficialities of the human existence.

For Hassan, the theme of "decay" is at the heart of his artistic work. Decay is emblematic of modern man's problematic approach to his own history, on the one hand, documenting today's fast-paced nature and its transience as well as displacement processes, i.e. the human unwillingness to create and preserve differentiated images of history.

The places that Hassan visits in the process tell in their decay of people who once filled these places with life, of the habits and customs, of the joy and suffering that gave the places before their decay. And it is precisely these imprints that are still reflected in the decay and are filled with a magical splendour of bygone times.

With his photography, the artist succeeds in capturing this magic of the past in unique images and presenting it artistically.