Bluffer’s Notes
This fine-art photographer uses elevated perspective as his signature style
Andreas Gursky’s photos cast the world in a new light
AndreAs Gursky’s largescale images present his own unique vision of the contemporary world. His photographs, often made from an elevated perspective, feature everything from goods in Amazon warehouses and 99 Cent shops to landscapes covered with solar panels. However, these images are not straight photographs: he openly uses digital technology to manipulate scenes so he can comment on global capitalism and how we live now.
What was his background?
Gursky was born in 1955 in Leipzig, East Germany, but his family moved to West Germany soon afterwards. His father was a commercial photographer. He studied at Folkwang University in Essen from 1977-80, then at the Academy of Art in Düsseldorf from 1980-87.
He was taught by Bernd and Hilla Becher, known for their systematic and ‘objective’ photographs of industrial structures. They had an important influence on the approach, style and content of his work. Gursky became a Professor of Liberal Arts at the Düsseldorf Academy of Art in 2010.
How has Gursky’s work changed during his career?
His pictures from the mid-1980s were single images of landscapes, man-made structures and people at leisure. He went on to photograph workplace interiors such as the Tokyo Stock Exchange and a Siemens factory.
In the 1990s, his work broadened out to focus on many different aspects of the late 20th-century world. He also began to digitally manipulate images – taking out some details, repeating certain elements and combining several images to create interpretations rather than literal representations of subjects. He continues to develop this approach today.
What’s his most famous picture?
That’s arguably his 1999 work, ‘Rhine II’. It’s one of a series of six images of the river Rhine and the surrounding landscape. In this image, Gursky has digitally altered the scene to remove certain features from the original image, including trees and a factory building. The resulting image shows a flat, featureless landscape under an overcast sky. It’s well-known because a print was auctioned at Christie’s in New York for £2.7 million in 2011. It still holds the record as the world’s most expensive photograph sold under auction.
How does he describe his approach?
Gursky rarely agrees to interviews and makes few statements about the overall meaning of his work; he prefers people to make their own interpretations. His most famous quote is characteristically analytical and detached: “I am never interested in the individual, but in the human species and its environment.”
Where can I see Gursky’s work?
A large-scale exhibition of his work is on show at Hayward Gallery, London, until 22 April. It’s Gursky’s first major retrospective in a UK institution and features almost 70 images, from his earliest works in the mid-1980s to those made in 2017. It’s the ideal introduction to the range of work made by one of the most significant fine-art photographers working today. www.southbankcentre.co.uk/ venues/hayward-gallery