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Axel Beyer
03.07.2024 - 31.07.2024
Stadt Räume - Hamburg 1983-87
Artist talk: 17 July 7pm
Axel Beyer in conversation with Professor Olaf Bartels
Axel Beyer is a photographer from Hamburg and during the 1980's he documented a series of empty streets scenes of the city that 40 years later have proved to be an extraordinary record of an urban space that is perpetually changing. We see in Beyer's photographs details that are forever lost. Photographing in colour was not common at this time and the 'unknown' Axel Beyer can certainly be considered as an early European pioneer of the documentary genre.
’’The photo series STADT RÄUME (City Spaces) goes back to my final thesis at the FHS für Gestaltung in Hamburg. In the period between 1983 and 1987, I created an extensive work in which I dealt photographically with my hometown of Hamburg.
Inspired by American photographers such as Stephen Shore and Lee Friedlander, I was looking for places that on the one hand reflect familiar everyday life, but at the same time emanate a special pictorial climate.
Now, with the time gap of 40 years, the series has an additional historical dimension: the everyday things that were normal back then, the facades, the advertising posters and of course the cars, which now all seem to have fallen out of time, give the cityscapes a special charge. The backdrop-like effect of the compressed pictorial elements and interlaced surfaces makes time stand still. As if on a stage set, a testimony to the 80s in Hamburg is created.
The continuity of the series benefits greatly from the fact that I was striving for a documentary way of seeing at the time: all the motifs were taken with a medium format camera (Pentax 6x7) with a slight wide angle from eye level on Ektachrome 64 slide film from a tripod.
Over the long period of more than 40 years, this work has a special value for me and is still a starting point for my work today. Apart from the switch to digital photography, my working method has essentially remained the same over the years. In my long-term photographic project "Temporary Insights", which was awarded the Georg Koppmann Prize in 2019, I am still interested in documenting the dynamic changes in Hamburg's urban landscape.’’ Axel Beyer
www.axelbeyer.de
Gallery open: Friday- Saturday 1-6 pm, and by appointment
Artist talk: 17 July 7pm
Axel Beyer in conversation with Professor Olaf Bartels
Axel Beyer is a photographer from Hamburg and during the 1980's he documented a series of empty streets scenes of the city that 40 years later have proved to be an extraordinary record of an urban space that is perpetually changing. We see in Beyer's photographs details that are forever lost. Photographing in colour was not common at this time and the 'unknown' Axel Beyer can certainly be considered as an early European pioneer of the documentary genre.
’’The photo series STADT RÄUME (City Spaces) goes back to my final thesis at the FHS für Gestaltung in Hamburg. In the period between 1983 and 1987, I created an extensive work in which I dealt photographically with my hometown of Hamburg.
Inspired by American photographers such as Stephen Shore and Lee Friedlander, I was looking for places that on the one hand reflect familiar everyday life, but at the same time emanate a special pictorial climate.
Now, with the time gap of 40 years, the series has an additional historical dimension: the everyday things that were normal back then, the facades, the advertising posters and of course the cars, which now all seem to have fallen out of time, give the cityscapes a special charge. The backdrop-like effect of the compressed pictorial elements and interlaced surfaces makes time stand still. As if on a stage set, a testimony to the 80s in Hamburg is created.
The continuity of the series benefits greatly from the fact that I was striving for a documentary way of seeing at the time: all the motifs were taken with a medium format camera (Pentax 6x7) with a slight wide angle from eye level on Ektachrome 64 slide film from a tripod.
Over the long period of more than 40 years, this work has a special value for me and is still a starting point for my work today. Apart from the switch to digital photography, my working method has essentially remained the same over the years. In my long-term photographic project "Temporary Insights", which was awarded the Georg Koppmann Prize in 2019, I am still interested in documenting the dynamic changes in Hamburg's urban landscape.’’ Axel Beyer
www.axelbeyer.de
Gallery open: Friday- Saturday 1-6 pm, and by appointment