Deadpan Photographers

Matthias Hoch 

Biography



BORN

1958 Radebeul, Dresden, Germany


EDUCATION/TEACHING

2003 Scholarship to the German Academy Villa Massimo, Rome
1993-98 Assistant Lecturer at the HGB, Leigzig
1993 Travel Scholarship to Great Britain from the DAAD
1991 Post Graduate with distinction at the HGB, Leipzig
1990 Scholarship at the University of Essen from the DAAD (German
Academic Exchange Service)
1988 Degree in Photography, Hochschule fur Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig



His work is all about architectural photography. There is a large amount of the theme of shapes and colour in his work and the composition is always carefully thought out. The images are flat and lack human presence and the photographer hardly gives us any clue about the subject in the photography eg, When it was taken, where it is, what time. As it is lacks any human presance in it, I think that getting the shapes and the colours right is very important. The shapes are what makes the images interesting. 

Andreas Gursky 


(I couldn't reasearch deadpan without looking into Gursky)

He was born in Leipzig in 1955, but he grew up in Düsseldorf, the son of a commercial photographer. In the early 1980s, at Germany's State Art Academy, the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Gursky received strong training and influence from his teachers Hilla and Bernd Becher, a photographic team known for their distinctive, dispassionate method of systematically cataloging industrial machinery and architecture.A similar approach may be found in Gursky's methodical approach to his own, larger-scale photography. Other notable influences are the British landscape photographer John Davies, whose highly detailed high vantage point images had a strong effect on the street level photographs Gursky was then making, and to a lesser degree the American photographer Joel Sternfeld.

Visually, Gursky is drawn to large, anonymous, man-made spaces—high-rise facades at night, office lobbies, stock exchanges, the interiors of big box retailers (See his print 99 Cent II Diptychon). In a 2001 retrospective, New York's Museum of Modern Art called the artist's work, "a sophisticated art of unembellished observation. It is thanks to the artfulness of Gursky's fictions that we recognize his world as our own." Gursky’s style is enigmatic and deadpan. There is little to no explanation or manipulation on the works. His photography is straightforward.

Yet again, I can shapes play a huge role in Gursky's photography and the photographs are simple, Very simple. Especially the bottom one, very simple yet intriguing.

Bernd Becher and Hilla Becher.

Bernd Becher (born August 20, 1931 in Siegen; died June 22, 2007 in Rostock) and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (born September 2, 1934 in Potsdam) were German artists working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their extensive series of photographic images of industrial buildings.

Bernd Becher studied painting at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste Stuttgart from 1953 to 1956, then typography under Karl Rössing at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie from 1959 to 1961.

Prior to Hilla Becher's time studying photography at the Düsseldorfer Kunstakademie from 1958 to 1961, she had completed an apprenticeship as a photographer in her native Potsdam.

The couple married in 1961.

The Bechers first collaborated on photographing and documenting the disappearing German industrial architecture in 1959, and had their first gallery exhibition in 1963 at the Galerie Ruth Nohl in Siegen. They were fascinated by the similar shapes in which certain buildings were designed. In addition, they were intrigued by the fact that so many of these industrial buildings seemed to have been built with a great deal of attention toward design. Together, the Bechers went out with a large format camera and photographed these buildings from a number of different angles, but always with a straightforward "objective" point of view. The images of structures with similar functions were then displayed side by side to invite viewers to compare their forms and designs. These structures included barns, water towers, storage silos, and warehouses.

The Bechers also photographed outside of Germany, including buildings from the United States and other areas of Europe. Bernd taught at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and influenced students that later made a name for themselves in the photography industry. Former students of Bernd's included Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, and Candida Höfer.

They were the 2004 winners of the Hasselblad Award.