Photography

Since the 1990s I have mainly been involved in photography of landscapes, nature, still life and architecture. In the early 2000s, I began to focus on macro photography. I was fascinated by details and structures that I discovered in the foliage of plants, in rocks or in tree bark.

Turning to structures, I see myself in the tradition of Karl Blossfeldt with his close-ups of plant details. I also feel connected to the „Neue Sachlichkeit“, the so-called “Neues Sehen” by Albert Renger-Patsch. In the photographic art of the 1960s and 1970s I am particularly fascinated by Fritz Kühn and Hans Hartung with their light and shadow formations and the puzzling of structures.

In my own work, in addition to structures, color also plays an important role. My goal is to create aesthetic compositions through the interplay of shapes, contrast and color and to create independent works from what are often small details.

I like to create aesthetic photo-compositions through the interaction of forms, contrasts and colours. I like to turn a small detail into an original motive.

I found my motifs, lighting conditions and colors while traveling in Costa Rica, California, the Canary Islands and Australia. In order to make structures visible at close range, I take photos with a macro lens.

In the 2010s, I also turned to photography of people.

Scanography

In 2017 I discovered the method of scanography for myself. Scanners are usually perceived as indispensable helpers in the office, but not to create art with them. However, flatbed scanners with CCD technology are ideal for this.

CCD technology was developed in order to be able to reproduce the writing in the folds of open books and magazines clearly. This feature offers the possibility of sharply imaging other objects that are approx. 2-3 cm away from the glass plate of the scanner. Scanning the objects - I mainly use finely structured vegetable objects - creates an undistorted, high-resolution image consisting of many pixels - the scanography. Free of blurring and distortion that are unavoidable with camera lenses, scanographies are characterized by enormous sharpness and luminosity. The mostly vegetable objects glow against a black background. Even the finest details are depicted vividly and sharply - the textures of flowers and leaves seem to be palpable. What a nice way to use a flatbed scanner!

Scanning requires a completely different approach than classic photography. The display options are far more limited. The size of the glass plate and the low height of what can be represented on the scanography have a limiting effect. I can only use the scanner with the lid open - otherwise the objects would be crushed or squashed. In order to achieve a homogeneous black background, I can put a inside black cardboard box over the objects or work in the dark.

The objects must be placed on the scanner's glass plate - right becomes left and bottom becomes top. You can increase the level of difficulty by creating still lifes look like three-dimensional. These scanographies are reminiscent of baroque paintings - baroque digital!

So far I have mainly been scanning plants - fresh, wilting and dried-up ones. But fruit and vegetables are also worthwhile scanning models. The fascination continues.