Unless You Will
Unless You Will
Unless You Will
no. 20
“Encounter with
the physical world
is necessary to
keep the camera
from being but
an inert object.”
Eckhard Schneider
4
The last couple of months I have about photography. Call me
been pondering and pondering. a simpleton, but in the end
Amongst all of those questions, it doesn’t matter to me how
these popped up again. How do many images they sold, if they Astrid Korntheuer
we gauge art? And as artists - published a book, or belong to a Natures Mortes
who do we create for? Ourselves, great gallery.
the galleries, the public or work to I either like the images and
please the collector? Where does can relate to them, find some
self worth come into it and how
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inspiration or humour in them
can or should we measure that. - or I do not. If they make me
Do we base it on sales, the price ponder and question - all the
we put on our images, and how better. If they start a conversation
many images we sell? Inka Lindergård
and initiate a dialogue, all the
and Niclas Holmström
As artists, I think we all better, but essentially I am
constantly struggle with our own always looking for the essence of Saga & Watching Humans Watching
insecurities, frustrations and an artist. The way they surprise
anxieties about getting to the next me, how they use their creativity,
level, getting to exhibit in that and allow me to share the
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gallery, getting a book publisher freedom of being an artist.
to take note of us. But in the end The artists in this issue all have a
what is it all about? slightly different perspective and
Should we not just satisfy our perception of the world around Elena Volkova
own curiosity, should we not them. Airscapes
just create and appreciate the I found their images compelling,
moment? Be a free agent, dream even thrilling and they made
up compositions, play with light, me wonder about their creative
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tackle the shadows... process. By studying their work
Should we not simply celebrate I felt I could see “their vision” -
each image we are happy with their layered experience of their
and gain a little pleasure from crafted ideas. Meghann Riepenhoff
exhibiting in a small gallery? Instar
Without having a book published
or gallery exhibition?
I have looked at the images of
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the great masters, my heroes
and inspirations, the emerging
and established artists and
people simply passionate Nanna Hänninen
Plants / Objects / Trees // Paint
www.astrid-korntheuer.de
Astrid Korntheuer
Natures
Mortes
Courtesy Galerie Heike Strelow
Frankfurt/M, Germany
7
8 The Natures Mortes-series is
about disorder, abundance and
abstract painting. The pictures
flow over: it is hard to find some
orientation. But if ever you took
away all packaging material there
would be almost nothing left.
My photos are based on one
huge installation that I constantly
changed. They aren’t collages,
just 4x5 inch slides.
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DISORDER AND ABUNDANCE
Didier Arnaudet, 2010
This approach proves to In addition, she gives meaning Such a disposition reveals a 15
saga &
Watching
Humans
Watching
Represented by Gallery Swedish Photography in Berlin
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Coloured Mirrors, Pink Clouds
Dr Matthias Harder
Landscape photography has In other pictures in the “Saga” Inka and Niclas always work
been experiencing a renaissance series, which we are discussing together on large-scale series of
in recent years, but in quite here, we observe a grey, oily exposures where intention and
different manifestations. When liquid exuding from the Earth focus are different each time.
we are confronted with an and bubbling to the surface or If one compares, for instance, the
uninhabited, inhospitable ice- pink clouds drifting by. It soon individual images in the sequence
covered landscape in which a becomes clear that most of these “Watching Humans Watching”,
mirror reflecting the surrounding situations are not pre-existing, it becomes apparent with what
landscape is unexpectedly they have been staged even if in restraint and stamina the two
glimpsed in the snow, this is this case the coloured clouds are photograph their fellow humans;
clearly something special. At merely an artificial intensification usually from behind and thus
first, the reflection appears to of the normal expressive de-individualised, in a number of
be an image within an image, colouration of midsummer night locations, mostly in the Far North.
yet at the upper left corner of sunsets in northern Norway. This is the destination for many,
the mirror there is a flash of The two artists, who simply call particularly at midsummer, in
light, which could be from the themselves Inka and Niclas, alter order to experience an exceptional
rising or setting sun or maybe a the landscape only briefly with phenomenon of the light. During
camera flash. Occasionally, it is slight interventions, according these “magical” nights, the sun
only mirror fragments situated in to their own very personal visual rarely or never sets, producing
the image centre, which reflect concepts. This also applies to the a sunset with a corresponding
the surrounding landscape – strange colours of the rocks in the intensity of colour – myriad red
repeatedly refracted in the most snow. We are witnessing neither and golden tones - which lasts for
literal sense. The art of Inka chemical accidents nor climate hours. To shoot their photo series,
Lindergård and Niclas Holmström irregularities; this is nothing mostly during daylight hours, the
represents an playful-artistic more than colour from a spray two photographerssometimes
intervention, but one which is can or pink smoke, which tints waited a very long time until the
only carried out with and for the the landscape for the duration of emergence of a particular colour
camera. a photo exposure. Sometimes, combination of the protagonists’
In this respect, the Scandinavian it is merely colour filters placed clothing within the frame. It
artist duo espouse more closely over the flash, which falsify the sometimes strikes one as slightly
the values of Collier Schorr, or existing colours. Yet even given absurd that people should gather
Andy Goldsworthy who arranges this background, the fascinating at this spot, and the question
meticulous, temporary sculptures images lose nothing of their arises as to what they are actually
in ice or wood for his landscape radiance and impact. looking for. Inka and Niclas
photos, than the approach of investigate human behaviour with
their considerably more radical a subtle voyeurism: it appears
American Land Art colleagues, almost like an open air theatre
who sometimes even blast away performance, yet in reality no
whole sections of mountains in one has been cast in a role and
order to stage a parallel formality nothing has been added.
within the landscape.
Both series – “Watching Humans Only with the unusual combination The material used for the
Watching” and “Saga” – are linked of the two pictorial elements interventions in nature is removed
by the subject of unspoiled nature – northern European coastal after shooting the picture or
and it is surprising to learn that landscape and “floating” wooden pictures; none of the open-air
most pictures in both series were slats – does a tension and settings remains for longer than
taken at the same locations. explosive force emerge. Inka and an hour. Both the arranged objects 31
And so, as a logical consequence, Niclas act out this visual idea in and the natural setting are objects
they are closely interwoven in the same or similar locations and motifs of equal importance
this book and – in spite of their with wooden frames of various in the picture. By contrast, in
heterogeneous nature – form a sizes, sometimes stacked, so that the previously discussed series,
kind of entity. the vistas suggest independent people who were until recently
pictures within the picture. In this active subjects only become
By contrast, practically everything particular case, the whole scenery objects once the image comes
in “Saga” has been contrived. is tinged an unreal shade of blue. into existence. As the artists
The word “Saga” happens to
We find also in the series themselves say, they dispense
mean “fairy tale” or “myth” in
light-coloured ropes, fixed with labelling the location and
Swedish, and according to the
at several points within dark date so that the series retains an
artists, it functions as a kind
landscapes, which seem to trace air of enigma; on the other hand,
of umbrella term under which
the outline of a hill. Here too, the “Saga” picture titles are simply
various approaches to a series
we are being presented with a numbered throughout. The photos
of pictures can be summarised.
particular direction in which to were actually taken between 2009
The two do, indeed, transport us
read the image, one which we and 2011 in a number of different
to an enigmatic world of visual
automatically follow and which national parks in the USA, Iceland
surprises.
simultaneously gives substance to and northern Scandinavia. The (as
Some things, such as the mirrors, the hill. Were we to come across yet unfinished) project remains
were added to supplement the such a “tension” when walking an ongoing process within which
picture; others are somewhat through an unspoilt natural very little is predictable and allows
more complex in construction, landscape, we might imagine both artists – with the exception
such as a sort of wooden structure that we had found some primitive of spontaneous reactions to
made up of thin, pale wood geological survey or traces of particular situations – to also
slats which, tapering in several extra-terrestrial visitors. work in a considered manner.
layers into the picture’s depth,
Without a scale for reference, Behind the surprising, apparently
is held in front of the camera.
some proportions remain a scientific natural phenomena
This construction suggests an
mystery. In the case of the hill, for is hence an ironic comment.
image depth, and our gaze is
example, it could just as easily be The added objects or natural
directed towards the blue sea’s
an enormous mountain viewed materials collected nearby turn
horizon in the centre of the
from a greater distance. In “Saga” the concrete image into a thing
improvised framework – which
the interesting (and absolutely of mystery, something imbued
is the latter’s actual purpose. It
essential) fact is that the artists with symbolism; occasionally
is as if we are standing next to
never modify their interventions resulting in a pseudo-romantic
the photographers on a pebbled
with Photoshop afterwards. Digital transfiguration. While in one
beach, somewhere at the Baltic
post-production is only carried out series, people seem to be on a
coast maybe, with the sea
in the form of the usual contrast romantic search for the sublime in
stretching out before us beneath
or brightness adjustments, never a perfect landscape, in the other
a cloudy sky.
to enhance pictorial elements. this longing for edification and
pathos is paraphrased. A common
thread can be sensed throughout:
the photographers’ own real
fascination with nature.
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36 Inka Lindergård was born 1985
in Finland and Niclas Holmström
was born 1984 in Sweden.
They live and work together in
Stockholm, Sweden since 2007.
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40 Of Great Wonder
Alexxa Gotthardt
www.elenavolkova.com
My exploration of nothingness is 53
INSTAR
Meghann Riepenhoff
66 Solarstorm II
(Viscose cellose+ carbon bisulphide)
Solarstorm I
(Cotton, resin balls, embroidery string, acetate trays)
Initiation
(Latex, viscose cellulose+caustic soda+carbon bisulphide)
Instar* is a series of unique The objects I use are domestic 69
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Magnetic Reconnection I
(Polyvinyl chloride[tinsel], phosphors+ plastic+ resin)
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Stellar Nursery 77
(Pillow stuffing, chiffon, resin)
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Nanna Hänninen
PLANTS /
OBJECTS /
TREES //
PAINT
www.nannahanninen.com
80 Plant X
Plant VI 81
Object I
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The new series Plants / Objects Royal to my way of working I 83
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Plant V
Plant VIII
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Cactuses II
Plant II
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Plant VI 93
Front image Meghann Riepenhoff Back IMAGE Astrid Korntheuer Please note no image in UYW can be reproduced
without the artists prior permission. All images are protected by copyright and belong to the artist.
www.unlessyouwill.com // [email protected]