Book Concept and Design

At the centre of the book are around 80 people in Switzerland living with Long Covid and/or ME/CFS — many withdrawn from light, noise, and public life.
The publication unfolds across several layers: portraits and life stories, landscapes, and scientific contributions.
The portraits form the visual core. Photographed by Andreas Seibert using an analog medium-format camera, each image is placed on the right-hand page and framed by white space. Opposite, minimal captions note name, age, location, and date.
Full-bleed landscape images introduce a contrasting outside world — often no longer accessible to those portrayed.
The poetic texts emerge from an ongoing exchange between Andreas and Cristina Amrein, who lives with ME/CFS in Lucerne. Over time, conversations and messages shaped by fluctuating energy formed a distilled poetic voice that runs quietly through the book.
The cover translates the layout into a conceptual gesture: a black rectangle appears in the same position as the portraits inside, signalling absence and the gradual disappearance of those affected from visibility.

Photographer / Author: Andreas Seibert
With texts from
: Prof. Milo Puhan / Long Covid
, Prof. Kaspar Staub / Pandemics
, Young EMERG / ME/CFSReflections: Cristina Amrein

Über Sehen Über Leben
Format 280 × 238mm, 11 × 9.4 in
, 424 pages, 98 photographs, hardcover, German / English, 2025, ISBN 978-3-033-11102-8