Photokunst

27/08/2021

"Getting Ready" for FotoFestival der StädteRegion Aachen and PHOTO WEEK Berlin!

©️ Donata Wenders 'Getting Ready' , Paris 2000
from our current exhibition UNTITLED & also on display at the solo exhibition DONATA WENDERS @ Aukloster Monschau (FotografieForum der StädteRegion Aachen. Opening Reception 29th August 2021, 12:00)

"Getting Ready" for FotoFestival der StädteRegion Aachen and PHOTO WEEK Berlin!

©️ Donata Wenders 'Getting Ready' , Paris 2000
from our current exhibition UNTITLED & also on display at the solo exhibition DONATA WENDERS @ Aukloster Monschau (FotografieForum der StädteRegion Aachen. Opening Reception 29th August 2021, 12:00)

25/08/2021

#berlinphotoweek
26th August - 3rd September 2021

.... the scaffolding will hopefully still disappear in time

#berlinphotoweek
26th August - 3rd September 2021

.... the scaffolding will hopefully still disappear in time

13/08/2021

UNTITLED - glimpse of the installation view

Group show with photographes by

#nomibaumgartl
#lillianbirnbaum
#renégroebli
#thomashoepker
#moniquejacot
#hanneskilian
#birgitkleber
#barbaraklemm
#jensknigge
#koichirokurita
#robertlebeck
#herbertlist
#isamarcelli
#veramercer
#valentinamurabito
#stefanmoses
#ritaostrowskaja
#ulrikeottinger
#marekpozniak
#beatpresser
#sheilarock
#maxscheler
#wolfgangsievers
#liselottestrelow
#karinszekessy
#donatawenders
#kurtwyss

UNTITLED - glimpse of the installation view

Group show with photographes by

#nomibaumgartl
#lillianbirnbaum
#renégroebli
#thomashoepker
#moniquejacot
#hanneskilian
#birgitkleber
#barbaraklemm
#jensknigge
#koichirokurita
#robertlebeck
#herbertlist
#isamarcelli
#veramercer
#valentinamurabito
#stefanmoses
#ritaostrowskaja
#ulrikeottinger
#marekpozniak
#beatpresser
#sheilarock
#maxscheler
#wolfgangsievers
#liselottestrelow
#karinszekessy
#donatawenders
#kurtwyss

06/08/2021

Andrew Warhola, one of the most influential artists of the latter part of the 20th century, was born on this day august 6, 1928 as a son of immigrants from Czechoslovakia

Kurt Wyss met Andy Warhol in Paris in October 1977 at an opening reception.

Foto: ©️ Kurt Wyss: "Andy Warhol an einer Vernissage in Paris im Oktober 1977“, vintage, gelatine silver print

#kurtwyss #andywarhol #paris #birthday #blackandwhite #analogephotography #gelatinesilverprint #vintage #groupshow #untitled

04/08/2021

After a serious car accident, Nomi Baumgartl's rehabilitation stay in Hawaii allowed her to experience first-hand the healing effect that encounters with dolphins can have.
From this great power of self-awareness, an impressive photo-art project for the organization "Dolphin Aid" emerged in the years 2000-2001. Her spectacular photographs powerfully show the special dimension in the interaction between humans and dolphins ("The Humans of the Sea).

Photo: ©️ Nomi Baumgartl Tatjana Patitz - „Heaven“
and Cayla for „Dolphin Aid - Project“, Grand Bahama Island 2000

After a serious car accident, Nomi Baumgartl's rehabilitation stay in Hawaii allowed her to experience first-hand the healing effect that encounters with dolphins can have.
From this great power of self-awareness, an impressive photo-art project for the organization "Dolphin Aid" emerged in the years 2000-2001. Her spectacular photographs powerfully show the special dimension in the interaction between humans and dolphins ("The Humans of the Sea).

Photo: ©️ Nomi Baumgartl Tatjana Patitz - „Heaven“
and Cayla for „Dolphin Aid - Project“, Grand Bahama Island 2000

30/07/2021

Koichiro Kurita, known for his platinum works, has been photographing landscapes and subjects in nature for more than 25years. He studied perceptual psychology and used camera for his experimental research when he was a college student at Kwansei Gakuin University in Kobe Japan.

After reading Walden by Henry David Thoreau Kurita was inspired to photograph the natural landscape. Kurita traveled to the United States on a grant from the Asian Cultural Council Foundation. He began visiting the sites mentioned in Thoreau's book, exploring secluded areas only accessible by canoe. Kurita utilizes the early photographic process of calotype; using paper negatives and developing his images on location. The paper negatives are transferred to albumen and salted print paper using ultra violet light.

"For my photographs, I chose traditional platinum/palladium printing process with archival hand made gampi paper for a harmony of idea and form. There are three reasons to use gampi paper. First, I have seen Steiglitz's photogravure using Japanese paper in the past and was amazed by his approach. Secondly, the paper has been used for historical documents since the 10th century in Japan for its natural archival properties. Lastly, as a nature photographer, I am concerned about the environment. The gampi paper uses only the bark without making it necessary to cut down the tree. I collaborated with a paper maker to achieve a gampi paper that was suitable for photography. I took on the challenge to use gampi paper for hand coating photographs." (Koichiro Kurita)

©️ Koichiro Kurita "Shadow“, Catskill, NY 2002 platinum palladium print on Japanes handmade gampi paper

©️ Koichiro Kurita „Fall“, 1991platinum palladium print on Japanes handmade gampi paper

from our current exhibition UNTITLED
on display until October 15th

28/07/2021

Humility in the face of nature and its inimitable sublimity: that is the feeling that overcomes Jens Knigge during his wintertime travels along the Arctic Circle. He has recorded his impressions of snow-covered landscapes and the mysterious aurora borealis in platinum-palladium prints. In the end, the contact sheets of the negatives of his analog photographs illustrate the inadequacy of established formal idioms and modes of expression. For it seems to be virtually impossible to render the essence of the experience of nature with the means of photography. Knigge’s pictures accordingly hover between figuration and abstraction; as though the artist, with each new picture, encircled a mystical space opening up between surface and depth. Knigge’s landscape pictures are sustained by the ultimate defeat of the will to document and depict before a "white abyss of infinity." (Ralf Hanselle)

Photographie: © Jens Knigge 'Neighborhood', 2015
Platin Paladium Print (60 x 95 cm), series „NORTHERN LIGHT"
from our current groupshow UNTITLED
on display until October 15th

#jensknigge #northernlight #platinpalladium

Humility in the face of nature and its inimitable sublimity: that is the feeling that overcomes Jens Knigge during his wintertime travels along the Arctic Circle. He has recorded his impressions of snow-covered landscapes and the mysterious aurora borealis in platinum-palladium prints. In the end, the contact sheets of the negatives of his analog photographs illustrate the inadequacy of established formal idioms and modes of expression. For it seems to be virtually impossible to render the essence of the experience of nature with the means of photography. Knigge’s pictures accordingly hover between figuration and abstraction; as though the artist, with each new picture, encircled a mystical space opening up between surface and depth. Knigge’s landscape pictures are sustained by the ultimate defeat of the will to document and depict before a "white abyss of infinity." (Ralf Hanselle)

Photographie: © Jens Knigge 'Neighborhood', 2015
Platin Paladium Print (60 x 95 cm), series „NORTHERN LIGHT"
from our current groupshow UNTITLED
on display until October 15th

#jensknigge #northernlight #platinpalladium

13/07/2021

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
Lao-Tse

In February 1985 Ulrike Ottinger traveled to Beijing and the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan and shot her film
China
The Arts – The People

In this four and a half hour documentary or filmic tavelogue, Ulrike Ottinger tries to impart new ways of seeing a foreign culture.

„In making the film, I was influenced by Chinese naturepainting: by the use of the scroll, which not only demands a different method of painting, but a different way of viewing - rolling out the scroll, focusing in on details, wandering to and fro, viewing piecemeal. So if I was filming a market square, for example, I'd pan very slowly and steadily across the square, rather than trying to capture the image in toto“.
– Ulrike Ottinger

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.
Lao-Tse

In February 1985 Ulrike Ottinger traveled to Beijing and the provinces of Sichuan and Yunnan and shot her film
China
The Arts – The People

In this four and a half hour documentary or filmic tavelogue, Ulrike Ottinger tries to impart new ways of seeing a foreign culture.

„In making the film, I was influenced by Chinese naturepainting: by the use of the scroll, which not only demands a different method of painting, but a different way of viewing - rolling out the scroll, focusing in on details, wandering to and fro, viewing piecemeal. So if I was filming a market square, for example, I'd pan very slowly and steadily across the square, rather than trying to capture the image in toto“.
– Ulrike Ottinger

13/07/2021

Monique Jacot is one of the few women of her generation who have continuously pursued their photographic path over decades and have continued to develop in different directions: from classic black-and-white reportage photography to the Polaroid process to colour transfers. Her work is characterised by a love of discovery, openness and playful crossing of boundaries.

© Monique Jacot 'Beersheba‘,1961 from our current exhibition UNTITLED - on display until October 15th 2021

Monique Jacot is one of the few women of her generation who have continuously pursued their photographic path over decades and have continued to develop in different directions: from classic black-and-white reportage photography to the Polaroid process to colour transfers. Her work is characterised by a love of discovery, openness and playful crossing of boundaries.

© Monique Jacot 'Beersheba‘,1961 from our current exhibition UNTITLED - on display until October 15th 2021

02/07/2021

SUMMERTIME with

©️ Lillian Birnbaum

„Gedeckter Tisch“, 1999, aus: Peter Handke. Portrait des Dichters in Abwesenheit

from our current exhibition UNTITLED

For over twenty years, the writer Peter Handke has lived in the inconspicuous suburb of Chaville on the outskirts of Paris. A place that Lillian Birnbaum visited again and again as a friend. Fascinated by the arrangements of the things of life, which are partly intentional, partly accidental, but always obey a mysterious law, she began to take photographs in the house and the garden. Five jackets in different shades of blue on top of each other on the back of a chair. On the kitchen table a small bowl of beans, an Arabic newspaper. A blue and a green rubber ball in a rusty pram, next to it garden shoes full of leaves. A deserted garden table that was just filled with life a few minutes ago.

#summerbreak #weekendfeeling #withphotography #lillianbirnbaum #gedecktertisch #PeterHandke #portraitdesdichtersinabwesenheit #blackandwhitephotography #onlyanalog

SUMMERTIME with

©️ Lillian Birnbaum

„Gedeckter Tisch“, 1999, aus: Peter Handke. Portrait des Dichters in Abwesenheit

from our current exhibition UNTITLED

For over twenty years, the writer Peter Handke has lived in the inconspicuous suburb of Chaville on the outskirts of Paris. A place that Lillian Birnbaum visited again and again as a friend. Fascinated by the arrangements of the things of life, which are partly intentional, partly accidental, but always obey a mysterious law, she began to take photographs in the house and the garden. Five jackets in different shades of blue on top of each other on the back of a chair. On the kitchen table a small bowl of beans, an Arabic newspaper. A blue and a green rubber ball in a rusty pram, next to it garden shoes full of leaves. A deserted garden table that was just filled with life a few minutes ago.

#summerbreak #weekendfeeling #withphotography #lillianbirnbaum #gedecktertisch #PeterHandke #portraitdesdichtersinabwesenheit #blackandwhitephotography #onlyanalog

29/06/2021

UNTITLED

#openingday

with photographes by

#nomibaumgartl
#lillianbirnbaum
#renégroebli
#thomashoepker
#moniquejacot
#hanneskilian
#birgitkleber
#barbaraklemm
#jensknigge
#koichirokurita
#robertlebeck
#herbertlist
#isamarcelli
#veramercer
#valentinamurabito
#StefanMoses
#ritaostrowskaja
#ulrikeottinger
#marekpozniak
#beatpresser
#sheilarock
#maxscheler
#wolfgangsievers
#liselottestrelow
#karinszekessy
#donatawenders
#kurtwyss

©️ Max Scheler 'Untitled',Paris Champs-Élysées, 14 July 1952

Wenn sich nach über einem Jahr der Corona-Restriktionen und Lockdowns die Galerietüren wieder öffnen, lässt sich die Frage stellen: was haben wir eigentlich am meisten vermisst? Worunter haben wir am meisten gelitten?
Unter dem bescheidensten aller Titel lädt Johanna Breede mit UNTITLED zu einer Art Wunschkonzert ein, das eine ganze Wundertüte von Antworten bereithält. Denn „ohne Titel“ bedeutet hier nicht ohne Konzept, sondern erhebt vielmehr die größtmögliche Freiheit, nach der wir uns so lange gesehnt haben, zum Konzept. Es ist die Freiheit der Auswahl, die jedem oder jeder der 27 FotografInnen oder Nachlässe der Galerie gewährt wird, um das jeweilige Lieblingsmotiv zu präsentieren. Seien es die Klassiker wie Hannes Kilian, Liselotte Strelow, Stefan Moses, Robert Lebeck, Ulrike Ottinger und Barbara Klemm oder die FotografInnen der nächsten Generation wie Donata Wenders und Jens Knigge, sie alle verbindet der Fokus auf die analoge Schwarz-Weiß-Fotografie.
Was man prosaisch auch Accrochage oder pejorativ Potpourri nennen könnte, fordert die Galeristin wie die BesucherInnen gleichermaßen heraus, in der heterogenen Vielfalt nicht nur den schwarz-weißen Faden, sondern vielleicht auch Sichtachsen und Narrative zu entdecken. So ließe sich vor dem Erfahrungshintergrund der Pandemie die zufällige Zusammenstellung als eine Geschichte der Sehnsucht erzählen, nach Ausblick und Freizügigkeit, nach menschlicher Nähe und Berührung, nach purer Lebensfreude und gespannter Erwartung.
So richten wir mit Barbara Klemm unseren „Blick aus dem Russischen Museum St. Petersburg“ von 2012 durch das Rundbogensprossenfenster und müssen fast blinzeln, so sehr blendet das glitzernde Wasser im Gegenlicht, das den Innenraum in tiefes Dunkel taucht. Dabei hat der harte Schwarzweiß-Kontrast zwischen Innen und Außen nicht nur formale Qualität, sondern erzeugt ein geradezu feierliches Pathos.
Pure Lebensfreude fängt dagegen die Modefotografin Sheila Rock mit ihrem Foto „Joy“ von 1987 ein, auf dem eine junge Frau einen kleinen Hüpfer oder buchstäblichen Freudensprung macht, der ihren weißen Plisseerock über den schwarzen Strümpfen wi**en lässt. Als erwartete sie alles Glück des Himmels hat sie den Kopf lachend in den Nacken geworfen und die Arme wie zum Seilspringen ausgebreitet. Freudige oder vielmehr gespannte Erwartung wird auch in Donata Wenders Foto “Getting Ready”, 2000 spürbar, das drei junge Frauen Backstage zeigt, zurechtgemacht für den Abend oder den Laufsteg mit aufgesteckten Haaren, nackten Schultern und bloßen Armen. Dabei vermittelt die Tiefenunschärfe nicht nur ihre innere Anspannung und Bewegung, sondern legt sich auch wie ein zarter Schleier der Romantik über das Geschehen.
Indessen erscheint die romantische Beziehung zwischen dem ‘Jungen Paar am Ammersee’, 1959 von Herbert List durch den Fotografen leicht gestört. Während die nackte Rückenfigur des Mannes liebevoll den Arm auf die Schulter der Frau legt, scheint diese en Face mehr mit der Kamera als ihrem Freund zu flirten. In jedem Fall ist sie sich der fotografischen Situation voll bewusst, der er den Rücken zukehrt.
Völlig ungerührt von dem Geschehen hinter ihr zeigt sich indes die alte Frau mit Hut und Regenschirm, die Max Scheler am 14. Juli 1952 in Paris fotografiert hat. Sie lässt sich keinesfalls von ihrem Sitzplatz auf einer Bank vertreiben, die von den übrigen Passanten als Podest missbraucht wird, um die Parade zum französischen Nationalfeiertag besser sehen zu können.
Neben den Geschichten von Sehnsucht, Neugier und Erwartung ließe sich aber auch ein anderer Erzählstrang über Einsamkeit und Abgeschiedenheit verfolgen, wie ihn der große Platinprint „Neighborhood“, 2015 von Jens Knigge vermittelt. Völlig einsam liegt das Haus, das nur schemenhaft aus dem Grau in Grau seiner Umgebung hervortritt. In schonungslose Unmittelbarkeit präsentiert sich der Kontaktprint, der nicht durch Vergrößerung, sondern über ein großes Internegativ mit dem sensibilisierten Papier eins zu eins kontaktet und belichtet wird.

Je nach Geschmack und Gestimmtheit regt das offene Konzept der Ausstellung dazu an, eigene Blickachsen und Gedankenspiele zu entwickeln. Wer sich davon anregen lässt, für den wird Jens Knigges schmaler Bildausschnitt vom schrägen Dach der „Schwangeren Auster“ zur Rampe, auf der zumindest die Gedanken leicht abheben können.
Dorothea Zwirner