When Elias asked me if I wanted to travel to Trentino, Italy, to see him and photograph his work at the exhibition at Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea, I already suspected that it would be bizarre but I couldn’t pass up this offer.

After a successful and long vernissage, we drove up a mountain somewhere between Bolzano and East Tyrol in his old rattling Golf II to stage him in his performance suit. We were complete strangers, disturbing local peace, scaring poor hikers – Elias in his white goat fur, covered by a wooden carved mask giving this alpine shamanic look, and me, the voyeur in his trench coat lying in the snow taking pictures. After this freezing photoshoot we warmed up by a gorgeous south tyrolean Bretteljausn.

Olympus OMII, Ilford – 400, Ilfosol-3