Tiffany Jow
Marco Breuer,
Untitled (C-1178), 2012
chromogenic paper, burned.
Courtesy of the artist and Von Lintel Gallery, New York.
Over the course of his twenty-year career, Marco Breuer
has made a name for himself as a camera-less photographer. Less
concerned with how photography captures a subject and more with the
uncharted territory in the very materiality of photography, the
conceptually driven German artist uses coal, sandpaper, heat guns,
burning swaths of cotton, electric frying pans, and other unexpected
objects to lacerate photographic paper in various ways. The exquisite
results mimic constellations, explosions, midnight city skylines,
tie-dye, and other natural wonders that expose every detail, abrasion,
and color shift. Unlike traditional photographs, Breuer’s are truly one
of a kind.
Von Lintel Gallery unveils Breuer’s latest series on May 10 in an exhibition titled Condition.
Here, photographic color paper is manipulated with heat, light, and
manual scouring, making way for new colors and electrifying effects.
Photographic sketches and slashed thirty-by-forty-inch prints will also
be on view. We caught up with the artist on the week of the show’s
opening to learn more about the exhibition and what led him to his
distinctive examination of photographic practice.
How are these works different from what you’ve done previously?
They are part of an ongoing attempt to strip down the photographic
process, to remove the distractions of equipment, and to force imagery
out of photographic paper itself. I am interested in the intersection of
photography and drawing: the negotiation of the illusionistic space of
photography versus the concrete space of the physical mark.
How did you achieve the electric blue color that dominates much of the show?
The blue is the chromogenic paper’s response to the orange glow of
the heating element. In the vast majority of works I do not chose
colors: they are the result of the parameters I set. When I have to make
a choice, as in a contact print, I try to make it not about color, like
dialing 0/0/0 in the enlarger.
Do you feel misrepresented when people refer to you as a photographer?
Not at all.
How did you first come up with the concept that now drives your methodology of art-making?
After six years of photography school I had heard every rule in the book. While that was helpful for a solid technical grounding, it did get in the way of true exploration. My 100 Tage thesis project was an attempt to get all of that education out of my system. I tried to literally make all those images stored in my head, to get to the point where I had to dig deeper, could no longer rely on what I knew (or had been told). Ultimately, I needed to tweak the medium of photography to make it work for me, shift from the standard mode of illustration of preconceived notions to an actual investigation of the conditions of the photographic medium.
Read full interview @ ARTLOG
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