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graphie d’Art, parisphoto.photographie.com (accessed
May 11, 2005).
Robey, Ethan.The Utility of Art: Mechanics’Institute Fairs
in New York City, 1828–1876. Submitted in partial ful-
fillment of the requirements for doctor of philosophy in
the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Columbia
University, New York City, 2000.ANDRE
́
GELPKE
German
One of Europe’s leading postwar photojournalists,
Andre ́Gelpke creates in his photographs vibrant,
arresting images by offering an abundance of in-
formation. Precisely composed and perfectly framed
for the composition at hand, his rich black-and-
white pictures freeze time into intense images which,
because of the absence of time and movement, can
seem overwhelming, even alienating. Whether it is
capturing a playground frozen into a timeless frieze
of human and architectural forms (Bretagne, 1983)
or human subjects who are photographically trans-
formed into virtual specters or automatons (such
as the three swimmers presenting themselves for a
mist-blurred lens inKanalschwimmer,1977orthe
handshake and bow captured inKunstverein Ko ̈ln,
1979),Gelpkeusestheuniquetechnicallanguageof
photography to create evocative, emotional reflec-
tions of reality.
Like all of the generation of contemporary Ger-
man photographers, Gelpke, born in 1947, grew
up in a divided Germany that faced huge chal-
lenges of reconstruction after the war. He attended
grammar schools in his hometown of Beienrode
and in the industrial town of Rheydt, and second-
ary schools in Rheydt and Krefeld. After various
trade jobs and service in the military, and after
developing an interest in photography, in 1969 he
entered the Folkwangschule, Essen, where Otto
Steinert, the instigator of the ‘‘fotoform’’ group
which practiced a highly abstract form of pho-
tography (more generally known as Subjective
Photography), taught. It was under Steinert that
Gelpke’s style was formed, wherein vignettes of
the world around him are excised and framed, so
to speak. Within this style, Gelpke has produced
rich and varied bodies of work. Series shown in
exhibitions such as Sea Pieces, Plastic People,
Sankt Pauliand published in books such asSex-
Theater, Fluchtgedanken, and the famous Der
Schiefe Turm von Pisademonstrate Gelpke works
in the best documentary tradition, adding a dis-
tinctive, intelligent visual rhetoric.
In 1975, after working as a photojournalist for
about a year, Gelpke was a co-founder of the Visum
Photo Agency in Hamburg, now a leading stock
photo and photographic agency.
Andre ́Gelpke is a conservative in the pure sense
of the word. Photography, however, is an immense
store of forgotten and deeply hidden meanings.
Because of its development throughout the entire
culture, every photograph is full of symbol and
meaning, which go unnoticed by most people in
daily life. But the photographic work of Andre ́
Gelpke is not merely a store of hidden emotional
values; it also offers imaginative potential. This is
why he at the same time is very much a progressive.
He conserves and reminds us of not only the for-
gotten or overlooked, but also creates, through his
role as ‘‘image designer,’’ new worlds, some of
them perhaps even utopias. The works in the series
Fluchtgedanken, completed in 1983, for example,
largely feature people shot, obviously posing, from
behind, thus hiding their faces, or from angles where
the hair obscures the face. Each image is myster-
ious, but taken together, the series evokes a palp-
able sense of otherness, despite the straightforward,
recognizable imagery.
Gelpke’s early photographs are also often uni-
quely erotic, not in the conventional sense of depict-
ing nudes or other accepted sensual material, but in
his humanistic vision, which creates dense and evo-
cative worlds within each of his compositions. Each
series,moreover,isbuiltuplikeadream,whereblack
and white shades, nuances of color, and intriguing
compositional forms merge together and where one
image spontaneously evokes another. In this sense,GALLERIES