About

L’auteur, dans son œuvre, doit être comme Dieu dans l’univers, présent partout et visible nulle part.

(Gustave Flaubert)

Born and raised in southern Germany, from my early youth I was equally interested in both the sciences and visual arts. At first glance, they would seem to be separate disciplines that do not have much in common. Where scientists attempt to describe and explain the world objectively, artists seek to recreate it, question it, and reimagine it based on their subjective experiences. However, this does not necessarily have to be a fundamental contradiction, and the combination of both personal inclinations, together with visual perceptions during the childhood imprinting phase, can significantly shape artistic work.

Up to school age, I lived in an industrial town close to buildings made of brick, chimneys, and railway facilities. A side-by-side of plant constructions and residential architecture determined the view out of my home. Many years later, after an exhibition where selected prints of my Contemplation architectural series were shown, the feedback from several visitors made me aware of the fact that this juxtaposition was the central theme within all that images taken in numerous different locations. Although it is inherent to all photographic images that they show us something in the past, obviously the making of photographs can in addition be driven by perceptions which have burned themselves into our subconsciousness long time ago. Based on this background, on the one hand I am interested in the question of how living in the immediate vicinity of dominant functional architecture feels and must affect people. On the other hand, I am fascinated by how houses show more and more traces of life over the years and can thus themselves become symbols of human life.

In order to convey the inner relationship with the subject matter, it is necessary to use a visual language that is as concentrated, precise, and objective as possible. Strict objectivity, together with a suitable reduction, acts as a basic prerequisite to create distance between the observer and the depicted content. Only the distanced view of an author who does not make himself visible provides room for a recipient’s own reflection of the scenery and lets him dwell with the shown situation. Art should always be just the starting point for the process that takes place in the viewer’s mind. In addition, through an approach that is as concentrated and objective as possible, what is shown can develop a life of its own, and detach itself from reality.

Over the years, I have noticed that artistic pursuits only work for me when I follow my own inclinations and interests, rather than predefined concepts. The objects I work with and the photographic motifs should attract me naturally. This does not mean that I never pursue specific topics, however, I carry out even thematically narrowly defined projects such as Ísafold, Q03, and Zollhaus in the described way of contemplative realism.