Thomas waiter

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Thomas Kellner (born May 28, 1966 in Bonn ) is a German photographer , lecturer and curator . He was best known for his large-format photos of famous monuments , which look like "photo mosaics" due to the many individual images and a shifted camera perspective.

Life

From 1989 to 1996 Kellner studied art and social sciences for teaching at the University of Siegen . At that time, at the chair of Professor Jürgen Königs in the art department of the University of Siegen, a veritable “school of pinhole camera photography” developed, so Kellner worked intensively on the possibilities and limits of this technology. At the same time he experimented with other methods of photography such as salt paper prints and cyanotype . He also worked with various fine printing processes such as silver gelatine and rubber printing . In 1996 Kellner received the Kodak Young Talent Award . In 2003 and 2004 he was visiting professor for artistic photography at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen . In 2012 he was teaching photography at the University of Paderborn .

In 2004 he initiated the Photographers: Network project in his hometown , an annual exhibition curated by him with changing themes and international artists. The last exhibition of the network took place in 2013 with the tenth exhibition in his studio in Siegen. For the exhibition, he had selected works by 18 artists from seven countries and three continents. From 2005 the artist traveled to Brazil several times to take photos there as part of his assignment to represent architectural monuments in Brasilia. In 2010 the photos were shown in Brasilia on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Brasilia. In 2006 Thomas Kellner undertook extensive trips to the USA , Latin America , Syria and China , where he photographed famous monuments such as the Golden Gate Bridge , the Boston Athenaeum and the Great Wall of China with his special technique.

In 2010, together with students from the Gießen-Ost comprehensive school , he designed a photo project on the topic of the telecommunications bunker in Gießen. The project was financially supported by the City of Giessen as part of the City of Young Researchers competition . The focus of the students' artistic and photographic development of the bunker was to deconstruct Kellner's methodology of buildings and reconstruct them in his photos, "to record them as a process and to transform them to the conditions on site". For this purpose, categories for working with and on the individual components were developed and subject areas were formulated in cooperation with the students. The students then photographed the individual areas with the camera. The resulting photos were put together into collages and Powerpoint presentations: "The segmentation and subsequent recombination of the different perspectives resulted in a comprehensive and new, but also critical picture of the former bunker and the current headquarters of the Music and Art Association. [...] The students found the aesthetic confrontation with National Socialism in a place that is itself a cultural and historical testimony to be haunting and moving. "

In 2012 Thomas Kellner traveled to Russia on behalf of RWE to photograph industrial architecture in Yekaterinburg and Perm ( Genius Loci ). Both cities were founded by Georg Wilhelm Henning from Siegen . In the 18th century, Henning was invited by Peter the Great because of his expertise to promote the economy in the Urals and to promote mining in the region. The factories he founded processed steel and metal. Kellner not only took photos on site in Russia, but also in the surrounding area of ​​Siegen in order to capture the connection between the two regions in the processing of steel and metal.

Thomas Kellner has been a member of the German Society for Photography since 2004 . He lives and works in Siegen .

Photographic technique

Thomas Kellner works with a single-lens reflex camera and uses 35 mm film rolls. Each picture has a dimension of 24 × 36 millimeters. Each roll of a film consists of 36 individual images. To transport the film, there are perforations at the top and bottom, on which both the type of film used and the number of the respective picture are noted.

After developing the film, Kellner cuts it into strips of equal length and puts them together to make a large negative. The contact sheet is then made from this, on which the meta information about the film and the respective number of the recording are visible.

Usually photographers use the contact sheet to make a selection of the photographed individual images, which are then enlarged. It is usually never shown in the finished photographs. The material as the carrier of the image information remains invisible. Kellner, on the other hand, uses the information that is visible on the film in his finished photographs as well. On the one hand, they separate the individual images from one another and thus create a rhythmic structure and structure of the photographed object; on the other hand, they also make the artist's work process understandable for the viewer in the finished photograph: all other genres in painting, sculpture, graphics, etc. Today we are always discussing the style, the material chosen, such as the pigments, the canvas, the stone, etc. In photography, which is heavily medialized, all tend to only look at the window of the Renaissance, the depicted object, at most the composition or the authorship behind it. The chosen photo paper, its surface, its pigments or its grain or the meaning of the pixels are rarely discussed. However, given the inclusion of photography in art according to contemporary criteria, this would have long been necessary. [...] The chosen material, the style of the photographic process should be part of the decision of the author and an indispensable part of the image statement. "

When Kellner takes on a project, he makes sketches beforehand by dividing the object to be photographed into square sections and writing down the planned camera settings for each section. When the object is actually photographed, there can be several hours between the first and the last image of a roll, since Kellner takes photographs one after the other.

While in the past he actually only worked with a single roll of film - the finished photo then only consisted of 36 individual small pictures - he now uses up to 60 rolls of film. For his photo of the Grand Canyon, 2160 individual images were created and thus also 2160 different views of the natural wonder, which he then assembled into a single photo with a length of 5 meters.

Effect of the recordings

The first photo that Kellner took with this technique was an image of the Eiffel Tower (1997), which he conceived as a homage to the cubist artist Robert Delaunay . Delauney was very fascinated by what was then the tallest structure in the world and dedicated a large part of his work to its representation. Kellner took up the typically cubist "multiple view" of the objects and developed them into the central design element of his photos. The - compared to the central perspective - shifted perspective of the individual shots creates the impression of movement of the actually immobile architectural icons in the montage to the final overall shot : “The viewer thinks that by dismantling a building into individual pieces of an image and by tilting the camera several times the most famous sites in the world - from the Eiffel Tower to the Brooklyn Bridge - begin to rock, to sway, even to dance. Architecture is turned upside down. " (German: “One thinks that by breaking the building down into individual image fragments and by tilting the camera several times, the world's most famous sights - from the Eiffel Tower to the Brooklyn Bridge - begin to shake, rock, even dance. The architecture gets out of hand the joints. ")

When Kellner traveled to Mexico in 2006 to photograph important buildings there, one critic stated that his photos looked very similar to those after the 1985 Mexico City earthquake . “Kellner's photographic works are often interpreted as the destruction of landmarks of human culture. From this point of view, his photographic works seem to be an optical revelation of the vulnerability and fragility of culture and its collapse. ”Dance and destruction are therefore closely related in Kellner's works.

As a rule, people cannot perceive large objects with a single glance. Only when the eye wanders and sums up an “overall view” of many different impressions does the depicted object become clear: “Our brain complements incoming sensory information into a unified whole and ascribes importance to this perception.”

Kellner not only shows this combination of individual images to form a perception of shape in his works, but the viewer himself actively recreates this experience when looking at a waiter's photograph. His eyes are also constantly moving back and forth between the perception of the individual images and the overall picture, and Kellner's photographs can thus be perceived as a kind of experimental arrangement for a direct experience of what happens when we see large objects: “It is not a coincidence when Kellner's work should look like pieced together puzzles. They encourage the thoughtful viewer to unravel the meaning of these architectural milestones both visually and intellectually. We decode the scenes from the fragments that he puts together, from the automatic expectations that our brain sets, and from the more or less vague memories we have of these buildings. "

Works in collections

Solo exhibitions

  • 2002: Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester, USA
  • 2003: Monuments , Rosenberg & Kaufmann Fine Art, New York, USA
  • 2006: Tango Metropolis , Cohen Amador Gallery, New York, USA
  • 2006: Tango Metropolis , Stephen Cohen Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
  • 2008: Thomas Kellner: Architectural Photos , Schneider Gallery, Chicago, USA
  • 2010: Brasilia: 50 Years of Modern Utopia (Brasília: 50 anos de uma utopia moderna) , Espaço Cultural Contemporâneo - ECCO, Brasilia, Brazil
  • 2012: Small wonders , Photography Museum of Lishui, Lishui, People's Republic of China
  • 2013: Genius Loci , Museum of Photography Metenkov House, Yekaterinburg, Russia
  • 2017: Fractured Architecture , The Fox Talbot Museum, Lacock Abbey , England
  • 2017: Black and White , Reykjavik Museum of Photography, Reykjavík, Iceland
  • 2018: Tango Metropolis , Conny Dietzschold Gallery, Sydney, Australia
  • 2019: All shook up: Thomas Kellner's America , American Museum in Britain , Claverton Manor, Bath, England

Participation in exhibitions

Web links

literature

  • Thomas Kellner (Ed.): All shook up. Thomas Kellner's America . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-946688-70-9 (English).
  • Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Genius Loci: Two Siegener im Zarenland . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-944721-02-6 .
  • Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Contact . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-944721-28-6 .
  • Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Houston, we've had a problem! Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942831-77-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Roy Flukinger: Game room - Breathing Space . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Houston, we've had a problem! Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942831-77-2 , pp. 11-12 , p. 11 .
  2. ↑ Thomas Kellner. In: Website of the University of Siegen. Retrieved April 13, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Stefanie Scheit-Koppitz: Not what, but how. From early photographic work to the main work of Thomas Kellner . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Contact . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-944721-28-6 , pp. 7-12 , p. 10 .
  4. ↑ Yi – Hui Huang: Subjective and Objective. The interaction of mind and outside world . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Visuell Synthetic Analysis . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-946688-77-8 , pp. 13-39 , p. 23 .
  5. ^ Dancing architecture in black and white. In: www.muenster.de. September 4, 2019, accessed May 9, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Thomas Kellner. In: www.uni-siegen.de. Retrieved April 13, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Lecturer in the field of art and art education. Curatorial practice. In: kw.uni-paderborn.de. Retrieved April 13, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Florian Adam: The range of the photographic gaze. In: Westfalenpost. June 28, 2013, accessed April 13, 2020 .
  9. ↑ a b Brasília pelas lentes de Thomas Kellner. In: BrasilAlemanha News. May 17, 2010, accessed May 3, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Anja Mohr: Discovering history with art. A telecommunications bunker in the field of vision of extracurricular learning . In: Justus Liebig University Giessen (Ed.): Mirror of Science . No. 28 (2011) . Giessen May 4, 2011, p. 57-65 , p. 57 .
  11. ↑ a b Anja Mohr: Discovering history with art. A telecommunications bunker in the field of vision of extracurricular learning . In: Justus Liebig University Giessen (Ed.): Mirror of Science . No. 28 (2011) . Giessen May 4, 2011, p. 57-65 , p. 64 .
  12. ↑ Art meets technology. In: www.rwe.com. November 24, 2014, accessed May 3, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Dirk Müller: We are surrounded by ideal images. Dialogue with the artist . ars victoria, Siegen 2012, ISBN 978-3-942831-67-3 , p. 30 .
  14. ↑ Thomas Kellner: Tango Metropolis. Exhibition in the German Photo Museum. In: Website of the German Photo Museum . Retrieved May 10, 2020 .
  15. ↑ Paul Wombell: skeleton . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Brasília - 50 Anos de Utopia Moderna . ARP, Brasilia 2010, ISBN 978-85-62376-03-0 , pp. 15-19 , p. 17 .
  16. ↑ Reiner Thies: Original architecture photographs. Thomas Kellner presents in the "House of Art". In: Oberbergischer Anzeiger. February 28, 2020, accessed May 7, 2020 .
  17. ↑ Matthias Gafke: The moving man. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . October 24, 2016, accessed May 17, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Stefanie Scheit-Koppitz: Thomas Kellner. Seeing with and without a camera . In: Karla Osorio Netto (Ed.): Brasília - 50 Anos de Utopia Moderna . ARP, Brasilia 2010, p. 29-32 , p. 32 .
  19. ↑ Freddy Langer: The Grand Canyon . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): All shook up. Thomas Kellner's America . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-946688-70-9 , pp. 14-25 , p. 24 .
  20. ^ Fernando Castro R .: Contacts of an Infinite City . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Mexico . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-942831-21-5 , pp. 37-46 , p. 44 .
  21. ↑ Alison Pappas: The Space In Between. The space between . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Houston, we've had a problem! Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942831-77-2 , pp. 26-36 , p. 32 .
  22. ↑ Thomas Grüter: Gestalt Perception: Faces Everywhere. Clouds, tree bark or the moon disc - all kinds of objects often seem to have human features. Where does this illusion come from and what happens in the brain? In: Spectrum of Science . May 8, 2014, accessed May 9, 2020 .
  23. ^ Fernando Castro R .: Contacts of an Infinite City . In: Thomas Kellner (Ed.): Mexico . Seltmann and Sons, Lüdenscheid; Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-942831-21-5 , pp. 37-46 , p. 38 .
  24. ^ Eastman Museum: Thomas Kellner. In: https://collections.eastman.org . Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  25. ↑ Thomas Kellner 51 # 01 Houston, Dancing Chimneys, Houston Refinery. In: https://emuseum.mfah.org . Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  26. ↑ Schupmann Collection: Gallery. In: www.ms-collection.de. Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  27. ↑ Collection: Thomas Kellner. In: https://www.artic.edu . Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  28. ^ Thomas Kellner: La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona. In: https://worcester.emuseum.com . Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  29. ^ Fractured Architecture, Cubist Photographs' by Thomas Kellner. In: National Trust website . Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  30. ^ Thomas Kellner: Washington, Capitol 1. In: Library of Congress . Retrieved March 28, 2020 .
  31. ↑ Solo Exhibitions Thomas Kellner Selection. In: in focus gallery. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  32. ↑ Exhibitions at Rosenberg & Co. In: photography-now.com. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  33. ^ Amador Gallery - Fuller Building. Exhibitions at Amador Gallery. In: photography-now.com. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  34. ^ Cohen Gallery: Thomas Kellner. In: photography-now.com. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  35. ↑ Thomas Kellner: Architectural Photos. In: Chicago Reader . Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  36. ↑ Collections: Works. In: Photography Museum of Lishui. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  37. ↑ Museum of Photography Metenkov House: Томас Келльнер. Genius Loci. Видеохроника проекта German  Thomas Kellner. Genius Loci. Video chronicle of the project on YouTube , November 13, 2019, accessed on May 17, 2020 (Russian).
  38. ↑ Jessica Miller: Thomas Kellner: The Artist Distorting Your Perspective of the World. In: Culture Trip. June 9, 2017, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  39. ^ Black and White. Exhibition by Thomas Kellner in Skotið at Reykjavík Museum of Photography. Reykjavik City Museum, Reykjavik Museum of Photography, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  40. ↑ Thomas Kellner: Tango Metropolis. In: Conny Dietzschold Gallery. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  41. ↑ All Shook Up: Thomas Kellner's America. In: Art Fund. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  42. ↑ Les expositions: Archives 2000–2002. Musee de Grenoble, accessed March 29, 2020 (French).
  43. ↑ Palazzo Ducale Presents Arti & Architettura 1900–2000. In: artdaily. October 25, 2004, accessed March 29, 2020 .
  44. ↑ Pieced Together - Photomontage from Victorian Albums to Contemporary Work. In: Art Institute Chicago. Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  45. ^ New to View: Recent Acquisitions in Photography. In: https://www.worcesterart.org . Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  46. ↑ A Mind at Play. In: www.artic.edu. Accessed March 31, 2020 .
  47. ↑ Madrid, oh cielos! Círculo de Bellas Artes , accessed March 29, 2020 .
  48. ↑ Fotografias - Coleção Joaquim Paiva. Exposición en Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In: Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro . Retrieved March 29, 2020 .
  49. ^ After Photoshop: Manipulated Photography in the Digital Age. Museum of Fine Arts, Houston , accessed March 29, 2020 .
  50. ^ New Arrivals: Photographs from the O'Neil Collection. Baltimore Museum of Art , accessed March 29, 2020 .
  51. ↑ Participants 2016. In: diegrosse.de. Retrieved April 4, 2020 .
  52. ↑ Landscape that remembers. Museum of Contemporary Art Siegen , accessed on March 29, 2020 .
  53. ^ Analog and black and white: Photography in West Germany 1945-2000 from the Schupmann Collection. Erfurt Art Museums, accessed on March 29, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Waiter, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH May 28, 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Bonn