|
|
|
| Photography/graphic design |
|
|
Hans Hansen – Object Photography March 18 – September 21, 2003 Hans Hansen (born 1940) is today considered to be one of the most influential contemporary product and object photographers and indeed a legend in his field. For clients such as Sony, Bulthaup, American Express, Lufthansa, Vitra, Fiat, Perrier, Erco, Daimler Benz, Volkswagen, Porsche, Kodak, Joop, Jil Sander and many more, his Hamburg studio is one of the top international names. His work appears in major newspapers and magazines, from Geo, Harper's Bazaar, Stern, Vogue, Zeit, Max, Feinschmecker, Architektur & Wohnen, and so on as well as in numerous specialist photography journals. In addition he has a passion for publishing cookery books of high visual quality and for some years now has been engaged in independent studio photography. Following an apprenticeship as a lithographer, in the late 1950s Hans Hansen studied graphics under Prof. Walter Breker at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf. At the time photography did not feature in the curriculum. He familiarized himself with it himself – including by encountering modern design and crafts, for example Tapio Wirkkala and Timo Sarpaneva's glass creations – and at the age of 22 set himself up in business: as a product and object photographer. In the meantime his way of viewing things has become the accepted thing. Numerous products are inextricably associated with the images he created. Only rarely do the specific quality of the motif and the aesthetic statement in the photograph blend as perfectly, naturally and yet sensually as in Hans Hansen's specialist works. "Photography using graphic means" was how he once described his method of working. He is primarily concerned with portraying a product in an appropriate manner. Whether cars, chairs, cups, fabrics, luminaries, flowers, food or medical equipment – the object at all times appears in almost plain, so to speak minimalist lighting effects – precisely as befits its character and in a manner that portrays it most effectively. Hans Hansen sees himself very much at home in an applied approach to professional commissioned photography and is happy to refer to his independent works as an experimental field. In these he permits himself strategies that go far beyond a mere copy, achieving a high level of abstraction. He becomes totally involved with the material involved – for example glass or plastic packaging – and through his work provides an insight into their qualities. Hansen removes his subject matter from its familiar surroundings, thereby giving it a magical aura, of being, as it were, transported away. Hans Hansen has on several occasions photographed objects that correspond with the interests of the Neue Sammlung, representing them from a point of view that goes hand in hand with the aesthetic premises and designs of the State Museum of Applied Arts and Design. For this reason an exhibition of his work is more than appropriate.
Opening hours: Tuesday through Friday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. |
|
|
