ANDREAS GURSKY
German
During the 1990s, Andreas Gursky became one of
the most prominent photographers in Germany.
His large-format color photographs are distin-
guished by their precise composition, detailed
depth of field, and overall structure that avoids
any central vantage point. He is interested in how
social and political culture structures people’s lives
at leisure or at work, in the world of fashion, sport,
business, or finance.
Gursky was born in Leipzig, East Germany, in
1955 to a third-generation family of photographers.
He grew up in West Germany, where his parents had
moved the year he was born. As soon as he could
walk, he came into contact with photographers, as
well as photographic techniques and their applica-
tion to the advertising industry. This may have
encouraged his decision to pursue his studies at the
famed Folkwangschule in Essen, which at the time
was the most renowned school of photography in
Germany. The school was directed and greatly influ-
enced by the founder of subjective photography,
Otto Steinert, who trained photographers in an
applied aesthetic that corresponded to his own; and
the students worked primarily in small-format
photography, in prints rich in contrasting black
and white. Although Gursky began his studies the
year of Steinert’s death in 1978, the aesthetic taught
at the school was slow to move from the principles
established by Steinert. During this time, Gursky
dedicated himself to black-and-white photography
reportage with a Leica 35 mm camera. Among the
young instructors who had taken over teaching from
Steinert, Gursky profited most from the sustained
influence of Michael Schmidt, who familiarized him
with his own opinions and with the latest develop-
ments in photography coming from America.
After four semesters at the Folkwangschule,
Gursky followed the advice of his photographer
friend Thomas Struth and applied to the Academy
of Art in Du ̈sseldorf. There he entered the photo-
graphy class directed by Bernd Becher and his wife,
Hilla. With this step, Gursky turned away from
applied photography and to the study of photogra-
phy as a free art form. In the class he met Candida
Ho ̈fer, Tata Ronkholz, Thomas Ruff, and Petra
Wunderlich; Thomas Struth and Axel Hu ̈tte had
just finished their studies. The Becheresque princi-
ples of style served as a model for this generation
and even the following generation. The Bechers
taught students to focus on only one theme, one
point of view, and one perspective, as well as to
decontextualize the subject by excluding as much
as possible, any elements that defined time—all
essential components of the Bechers’ work. The
Bechers also influenced Gursky’s aesthetic, which
in the 1980s focused on common cliche ́ssuchas
people strolling on a Sunday afternoon, playing
soccer, or going on a packaged vacation. These
themes allowed him, as observer, to maintain a
constant distance, and thus his photographs pre-
served little of the reality of the scenes he shot,
making them stand for the general state of things
in the industrial world. The precise observation, the
fixation on a singular idea of the image, and the
patient execution belong not to a medium applied
to the world for a functional purpose but to one that
is an independent expression and an attitude toward
life. Taking in the Bechers’ understanding of photo-
graphy, Gursky put aside the 35 mm camera, which
made possible quick-reaction shots and the capture
of fleeting moments; from then on he worked with
large- and medium-format cameras, no longer in
black and white, but exclusively in color. In techni-
que and composition, his photographs from the
1980s demonstrate the influence of American color
photographers such as Stephen Shore, William
Eggleston, and, above all, Jeff Wall. A characteristic
of his photography that crystallized over time is the
distant, elevated position of the observer that faded
out the defining condition of the frame and led to a
floating perspective. Human beings formed by the
structures of their world become unrecognizable and
appear as part of a single mass that submits,
whether in leisure or work, to the same occupation.
Mountain climbers, swimmers, skiers, theater audi-
ences, and party or rock-concert goers are as equally
subservient as stockbrokers and industrial workers.
‘‘I observe human species under the open sky from
the perspective of an extraterrestrial being. To make
clear that my interest rests in the species and not the
individual, I have abstracted people into tiny figur-
ines’’ (Gespra ̈ch mit B. Bu ̈rgiZurich, 1992, p. 10).GURSKY, ANDREAS