Description
Axel Hütte finds most of the motifs for his landscape photography on his travels. These are by no means documentary-style photographs, however; rather, they resemble meditative visions suspended somewhere between fiction and reality.
Hütte deprives the viewer of any reference to everyday reality, for his images seldom contain any hints as to their dimensions or to the photographer's vantage point. His pictorial world is devoid of human beings, who have no place in his austere and desolate landscapes. With his large-format camera, Hütte travels the remotest reaches of the earth, climbing glaciers, journeying across ice sheets, flying over mountain ranges by helicopter and always on the lookout for shots. At the same time, the experience of the alien and the "sublime", the meandering meditative probing of contemplative spaces is an essential part of his landscape photography.
The artist's vision is by no means limited to the objective world. He engages us with geometric structures: a dune formation dissolving into horizontal lines, a bamboo forest dominated by the symmetry of vertical lines, treetops resembling an abstract surface. Axel Hütte’s landscapes are not mere snapshots meant to capture the moment, but rather meticulously framed compositions.
From 1973 to 1981 Hütte studied under Bernd Becher at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dusseldorf, where he lives and works today. He is regarded as a proponent of the Dusseldorf School of Photography.Details
- Work Date:
- 1998
- Location:
- UBS Zurich, Paradeplatz
- Dimensions:
- 118 x 148 cm
- Medium:
- Photography