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Sinatra (singular)

An indivisible unit

Appartment where man laid dead for 2 1/2 half years (Rotterdam)
 
Covalent bonds


Sinatra (plural)

The Atoms in
Sinatra’s Corpse
(2025)

Photographic Series



What if a song about self-determination becomes the soundtrack of loneliness? In his photo series The Atoms in Sinatra’s Corpse (2025), Xaver Könneker explores a narrative accompanying the song My Way (1969), made famous by Frank Sinatra. Sung by a man reflecting on a life shaped by his own terms, it has for years been the most popular funeral song in Western Europe. In Könneker’s work, it becomes a lens through which the contradictions of modern individualism are examined.

In his earlier video installation, Kodak Knows No Dark Days (2022), Könneker explored why people smile for the camera, and how such images are used in forensic identification. During his research for that project, he encountered a case that would later form the basis of his new series: a man lay dead in his Rotterdam apartment for two years and a half years, unnoticed. At his funeral, My Way was played – a triumphant anthem of autonomy and self-reliance that stood in stark contrast to the circumstances of his death. For Könneker, this contrast reflects a broader shift in which shared religious rituals and hymns give way to personalized, secular ceremonies featuring self-celebratory songs. While this shift brings new freedoms, it also entails unprecedented loneliness and a loss of connection. The unnoticed death of the man in Rotterdam thus becomes an extreme expression of a society in which individuals without strong socia ties can easily disappear.

The series weaves together staged photographs of Sinatra impersonators, atoms, and an archival image of the apartment block into a visual poem about autonomy and isolation. Drawing on the paparazzi aesthetic of Sinatra’s era, the images combine flash and glamour with shadow, distance and decay.

Written by Sarah van Binsbergen
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Recipient of the Mondriaan Fund for Visual Arts
Recipient of the Amarte Visual Arts Fund
Nominated for the Deloitte Photographers Grant
Supported by Goethe Insitute Rotterdam