Photographs by Beate Gütschow
Interview by Natasha Egan and Akiko Ono
Publisher: Aperture
Beate Gütschow: LS/S, the first monograph of this exceptional artist, features two bodies of work that compel the viewer to think about humankind’s celebration of nature and our ceaseless desire to control it.
In these luscious, digitally produced photographs each detail, including the subtle nuances of the palette and light, is carefully controlled, culled from an archive of images taken specifically for use in these seamless collages. Every blade of grass, pebble, and nonchalant passerby has been painstakingly orchestrated by the artist, who draws on the work and traditions of Romantic-era painters and photo legends Lewis Baltz and Bernd and Hilla Becher.
The landscapes (series LS) are constructed to convey the “perfect” pastoral scene. In stark contrast, the cityscapes (series S) present an eerily familiar vision of a nonexistent but clearly dystopian form of architecture. Although the two series present seemingly tranquil settings that at first appear as binary opposites, in fact, they are equally fraught with issues of control, inauthenticity, and the pursuit of perfection.
Copublished with the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago
This project was made possible, in part, with generous support from Andrew and Nicole Bernheimer, James Danziger, Paul Pincus, Howard and Patty Silverstein, and Jerome and Ellen Stern.
2 comments:
Beate Gütschow's LS/S is a prime and excellent example of the use of digital technologies in photography. LS/S contains two parts. The first part ("LS") shows colour photographs of what looks like classical landscapes (the German word for landscape is Landschaft, here abbreviated as "LS"); the second part ("S") shows b/w photographs of dystopian cityscapes (Stadt - "S" - means city in German). None of these photographs are actual photographs in the classical sense. It's a bit easier to see in the second part, but each and every photo was meticulously constructed from many individual parts, using a computer.
The effect is very impressive. The landscapes do indeed look like classical landscapes, an idyllic beauty, which, however, is not real. And the cityscapes, assembled from the city wastelands that have become so pervasive in our Western world, feel somewhat threatening, and because not all proportions are realistic (even though they're not so far off that one notices right away), the unease grows the longer one looks at them. I can't think of a more interesting way to use digital photography, and it's interesting to note that it is mostly Germans - who, or so goes the narrative, brought us the ultimate photographic objectivity - now disassemble the notion of objectivity so convincingly.
- Jörg Colberg (Conscientious)
Beate Gutschow explores the opposing juxtapositions of pastoral idealism and urban decay in her new volume of images entitled 'Beate Gutschow: LS/S'. Her images, which upon first glance could be mistaken as real, are in fact meticulously staged montages that have been digitally mastered by the German artist.
A rising star within the contemporary art circuit, Gutschow has taken a wealth of analog images around the world, which she then converts to digital and stores according to their location. Each work is a composition created from the layering of between 30 to 100 pieces, taken from her extensive catalogue and arranged into a panorama.
In her first body of work entitled 'LS', Gutschow creates scenes of pastoral idealism inspired by the paintings of 17th and 18th century landscape artists such as John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough and Nicholas Poussin.
Through her employment of traditional pastoral techniques, such as framing the scene with trees and creating a sense of spatial depth, Gutschow conveys a sense of Arcadian tranquility. However, upon closer inspection there is often a disruption to the apparently idyllic setting; the artist layers in industrial fabrics, causing an unnerving contrast with the natural surrounds.
In her second body of images 'S', Gutschow moves from the seemingly idyllic to post-apocalyptical scenes of urbanity. Her shift to black and white photography signifies the transition to a bleak world-view, and a look into what the future may have in store. Although the interface between the combined images is flawless, there is often a contradiction within Gutschow’s use of light and shade, giving her work an almost sinister edge.
Although Gutschow’s 'LS' and 'S' series appear as polar opposites in terms of their subject matter, both bodies of work compel the viewer to compare the celebration of nature and subsequent desire for perfection, against the contrasting scenes of urban decay and desolation.
- Wallpaper
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