PRO COLUMN
Peter Franck explains his approach to image-making, free from photographic rules
Peter Franck discusses how to avoid being restricted by the rules
When we think of an artist, we think first of a white, empty canvas. This is exactly where I started. The way I make my pictures is similar to the painting process. That’s where I come from. I first studied painting and free graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart, Germany. Here I learned to think and work completely freely, and to blur genre boundaries. The roots of photographic image design lies in painting and its varieties. The rules of painting are the measuring points of any kind of images, including classic photography. These rules are firmly anchored in our cultural imprint.
I do not stick to classical photography. Classical photography focuses on pure application of photographic techniques. It is oriented on these techniques, but is also limited by them. A camera is just a tool whose capabilities are far too limited to keep up with the imagination. Why restrict yourself?
A primary way of avoiding the restrictions of the camera is to use direct manipulation of the image. There is no difference whether this is done in the darkroom or using the latest processing programs. I don’t think digital and analogue should be played against each other. On the contrary. This is where my work comes in – I try to combine these two design possibilities.
Firstly, we collect pictures from past times and file them in organised archives. They form the basis and the thematic foundation of our works. An analogue template in digital records and files. The quality of the work depends on the raw material. These works were created 100 years ago or more, but years later, on the basis of their quality, they become a completely new way of looking at things.
Digitally, with the most state-of-the-art image processing programs, I am now trying to create new worlds of images and tell stories of current times. These leaps in time should be noticeable in the work. A collaboration over more than 100 years arises, and tries to expand the limits of photography. Of course, photographic prints can also be directly edited by painting, tearing, folding, collaging and so on.
Here I see my way for the future. The borders of the medium should always be expanded, always in the service of art and its task to show new ways and tell new stories. Photography in the classical sense has not interested me, but in some genres (e.g. reportage, documentary photography) I think it will still be used for a long time to come to draw objective pictures of our world. Photography is just one of many ways to discover an invisible world. It’s the beginning of something new.