Many details of our daily life in a complex society, are currently being exposed at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.
Gursky is German, but don’t worry about the Gründlichkeit with which the pictures are made. German photographer Andreas Gursky (1955) was introduced to photography by his father. He could be described as an antropological landscape photographer. Huge photographs showing meticously details of today’s manmade mass society. The huge prints show many details.
And depict Man as ants. Gursky is an observer, but an observer with an extra-ordinary wide-angle. Stock exchanges, pop concerts, or airports, Gursky’s ‘landscapes’ reflect today’s modern world. Although there are probably few artists that are so focused on the ‘real’ world, Gursky’s images seem as unreal as a Peter Jackson movie.
Another contradiction in his work is the fact that, as a result of the huge prints and extreme sharpness, individuals on the photos are easily recognisable. But it is not the individual that matters, it is the system that fascinates Gursky.
The exhibition in the Centre Pompidou follows Gursky’s career form the eighties till today. Some works are shown for the first time, like Avenue of the Americas or Madonna I, an overwhelming impression of one of a tiny popstar hypnotising a huge crowd.
