AXEL HU
̈
TTE
German
Axel Hu ̈tte, with Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky,
Thomas Ruff, and Candida Ho ̈fer, is a prominent
representative of the so-called ‘‘New German Photo-
graphy,’’ the ‘‘Du ̈sseldorf School,’’ or the ‘‘Bechers-
chu ̈ler’’—labels that refer to a group of German
photographers who came into prominence during
the 1980s and who all studied with Bernd Becher at
the Du ̈sseldorf Academy of Art. Influenced by
both the detached documentary style of German
prewarNeue Sachlichkeitor New Objectivity and the
self-reflexive attitude of conceptual art, these photo-
graphers depict the late twentieth century environment
by means of prints—often large—that are character-
ized by compositional simplicity and the clarity and
sharp details typical of the large-view camera.
Apart from an impressive series of black-and-white
portraits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hu ̈tte
aimed his camera chiefly at architecture, cities, and
landscapes. His early 1980s black-and-white series of
inner courtyards, entrance halls, and stairwells of
London public housing projects of the early and
mid-twentieth century testifies to this. Hu ̈tte presents
these spaces as anonymous and deserted monofunc-
tional zones, revealing both the weaknesses of the
urban social reform programs that created them
and the ruthless spatial politics of the Thatcher-era
that neglected them. These photographs of worn-out
architecture contribute to an artistic tradition that
reaches back to nineteenth-century realism, which
featured wastelands, back streets, and backyards pro-
minently. At the same time, however, Hu ̈tte combines
this unspectacular, everyday generic architecture with
unmistakably classical overtones by referring both to
the renaissance image of thecittaidealeand nine- teenth-century topographical or architectural photo- graphy. This effect is achieved by milky white skies, a geometrical clarity, and an emphasis on the perspec- tival recession of the architectural space, which shows some similarities with Stru ̈th’s street series. Yet Hu ̈tte makes the viewer more aware of the picture frame. The photographical perspective consciously takes up a positionvis-a-visthe urban scenography.
This sophisticated framing and fragmentation
of (urban) space is equally prominent in his 1990s
color photographs of bridges and subway exits.
In his pictures of steel bridges, the grid of cross-
beams and girders demarcates and traverses the
image. As a result, the surrounding landscape
becomes a two-dimensional icon and is translated
into a collage-like abstract image. In the photos
of Berlin subway stations, this interest in indus-
trial architecture is combined with a fascination
for the rhythmical play of glass surfaces and their
varying degrees of transparency.
Hu ̈tte, however, is mostly known for his land-
scapes. One of the highlights of his career to date is
his series of pictures of the Italian countryside
made in the early 1990s. Hu ̈tte shows that the
Italian landscape is a long-standing cultural con-
struction that developed in relation to an age-old
imagery of vedute andcapricci of scenery with
architectural fragments and ruins. Although un-
mistakably depicting a contemporary landscape
by means of a modern medium, he refers to this
wealthy tradition. His landscape perception is
colored by stereotypes and pictorial conventions
such as the division of the picture into fields of
color and the use ofrepoussoirelements, stressing
the spatial tension between foreground and back-
ground. This is achieved by partially blocking the
view with an architectural construction, which can
be ancient crumbling walls as well as recently built
suburban areas. In other cases, Hu ̈tte uses the
familiar frame motif in order to contain the land-
scape within the structure of a classical loggia or a
simple, utilitarian concrete or steel shelter.
The low horizons, the subtle hues, and the atten-
tion to the fragility of the structural elements of the
landscape also turn up in his late 1990s impressive
natural landscapes photographed on diverse conti-
nents. In contrast with his Italian series or other
Mediterranean views, in his later work Hu ̈tte depicts
spectacular mountain tops, glaciers, deserts or dense
jungles. With these images of the virgin nature of
extreme landscapes, Hu ̈tte, unmistakably, refers to
the romantic notion of the sublime. Nevertheless, he
does not create nostalgic images of a natural world,
which, in contemporary society, is first and foremost
an exotic product of tourism—a phenomenon that
always has been closely connected with (photogra-
phical) image production. Hu ̈tte knows that the
viewer is aware that his images are artificial con-HU ̈TTE, AXEL