Zo Damage 6/5/23 Zo Damage 6/5/23

Uta Barth

First published 15 August 2020

Uta Barth
Germany
1958–
Practice: Photography
Movement/Style: Contemporary

Uta Barth is best known for her alternative use of light, colour and focus, producing abstraction and distortion, resulting in an elusive and ethereal discourse of her images and subject matter. Barth considers her work never directly addresses the literal subject matter of the photograph but attempts to ask questions about vision itself, photographing sound, non-space and in-betweens. In her presentation for The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (2011), Uta Barth discusses her work over the past 20 years. Barth shares her influences and inspirations as she questions the interpretation of visual perception. Describing her work as visceral, Barth continues, explaining the application of psychological theories, including phenomenology, to her practice.

“The discussion of these photographs, or anything that lacks focus for that matter, as being ‘painterly’ or ‘pictorialist’, drives me crazy. It assumes that a photograph would secretly–or overtly–aspire to the attributes of painting in order to justify itself as an artwork” (Higgins 2013).

Bibliography

Barth, Uta. 1994. Ground #30. Image. https://utabarth.net/work/ground/#image-3.

Barth, Uta. 2011. "Uta Barth 2.8.11". Podcast. Modern Art Museum Of Fort Worth. https://soundcloud.com/themodernpodcast/uta-barth-2811.

Barth, Uta. 2012. "Conceptual Photographer Uta Barth: 2012 MacArthur Fellow | MacArthur Foundation". macfound. October 2, 2012. YouTube video, 03:10. https://youtu.be/xxYcpPDq5iQ.

Zo Damage 5/8/20 Zo Damage 5/8/20

Floris Neusüss

Adventurous and innovative, Contemporary artist Floris Nuesüss has a great impact on my work practice, particularly in exploring shape, texture and methodology. Best known for his photograms, I am drawn to Neusüss’ willingness to think outside the box, push boundaries and explore the craft of photography.

Floris Neusüss is a contemporary experimental German photographer known for his use of camera-less photography (photograms) … “Photograms don’t show us what’s beyond the visible, but they give us a hint of it,” Neusüss has said. “It is true that the subject resting on the photo-sensitive paper presents its reverse side to be recorded, the side that is in shadow, the shadow cast by the object itself. This intimate physical connection inscribes into the paper, and this, if you are open to it, is the real fascination of photograms: the tension between the hidden and the revealed.” … Today, his works are held in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. (artnet, nd)

Quotes

A true pioneer of photographic art, inspired by the camera-less photography of Làszló Moholy-Nagy and by Man Ray’s Surrealist photograms, Floris Neusüss has dedicated his whole career to the practice, study and teaching of the photogram, exploring its technical and visual possibilities and pushing the boundaries of the medium. — Twenty 6 Magazine

Relevance to practice

Alternative printing, Darkroom, Film, Contact printing, Obscure, Abstraction, Tone, Texture, Questioning, Experimentation

Keywords

Photograph, Monochrome, Photography, Camera-less, Abstract, Contemporary, 20th century, Community of practice

References

Artnet n.d., Floris Neusüss, viewed 15 April 2020, <http://www.artnet.com/artists/floris-neus%C3%BCss/>

Atlas Gallery n.d., Floris Neusüss, viewed 8 May 2020, <http://www.atlasgallery.com/artists/floris-neususs>

Gosling, Emily. 2012. “Floris Neusüss: Ancient and Modern.” Design Week. https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/may-2012/floris-neususs-ancient-and-modern/.

Neusüss, Floris. 1964. Nudogramm. Image. https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/may-2012/floris-neususs-ancient-and-modern/.

Squires, C, Batchen, G, Baker, G & Steyerl H 2013, What Is a Photograph?, International Center for Photography and DelMonico Books, New York, NY

Zo Damage 5/3/20 Zo Damage 5/3/20

Adam Fuss

Adam Fuss creates a visual language of beauty and strength, exploring and redefining notions of what constitutes a photograph or an image. Fuss is less interested in the meaning of the picture than the making of it (Kellein 2013), depending on the rudimentary infrastructure of pinhole cameras, photograms and other commonly considered ‘redundant’ processes to create spectacular conceptual deconstructions of the transforming medium (Lundström 2005) (Jolly et al. 2015, 6).

I am officially in love … and not sure how to approach writing about Fuss or the relationship to practice.

Adam Fuss, Medusa, 2010 — Adam Fuss, *Medusa*, 2010

Quotes

I’m not interested in the meaning of the picture, I’m interested in the making of it. — Adam Fuss (2013)

Keywords

“Adam Fuss.” n.d. Fraenkel Gallery. Accessed September 11, 2022. https://fraenkelgallery.com/artists/adam-fuss.

Adam Fuss, Camera-less photography, Photogram, Water, Chemigram, Contemporary, Energy, Movement Rebel, Focused, Narratives, Alternative printing, Abstraction, Obscure, Texture, Contrast, Emotive, Community of practice

References

123marketstreet 2011, A&A Portrait – Adam Fuss, online video, YouTube, viewed 3 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxpeNIN0iRA>

Cheim & Read 2013, Adam Fuss Documentary, online video, YouTube, viewed 3 May 2020, <https://youtu.be/LHvByy7950Q>

Douglas Udell Gallery 2013, Adam Fuss in Conversation with Thomas Kellein, online video, YouTube, viewed 3 May 2020, <https://youtu.be/HrgvCngcf40>

Fuss, A 2010, Medusa, photograph, viewed 3 May 2020, <https://www.artsy.net/artwork/adam-fuss-medusa-from-the-series-home-and-the-world>

Fuss, Adam. 2013. "Adam Fuss in Conversation with Thomas Kellein." February 10, 2013, 26:07. YouTube video. DouglasUdelGalery. https://youtu.be/HrgvCngcf40.

Jolly, Martin, Cherine Fahd, and Suzanne Buljan. 2015. The Alchemists: Rediscovering Photography In The Age Of The Jpeg. Sydney: The University of Sydney. PDF. https://martynjolly.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/

thealchemistscatalogue.pdf.Lundström, Jan-Erik. "Fuss, Adam." In The Oxford Companion to the Photograph. : Oxford University Press, 2005. https://www-oxfordreference-com.ezproxy.lib.rmit.edu.au/view/10.1093/acref/9780198662716.001.0001/acref-9780198662716-e-601.

Rafferty, E 2013, Art Movements Through Photography, online video, YouTube, B&H Photo Video, viewed 2 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-Bx5krtLZY&t=3444s>

Victoria and Albert Museum 2018, Camera-less photography: Adam Fuss, online video, YouTube, viewed 2 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHNvVm0Rp_4>