Klaus Baumgärtner. Sequence

Klaus Baumgärtner (1948-2013) makes installations, objects and photos. An extensive publication of his work is now released for the first time.

Baumgärtner arranges nothing in his photos. Whatever they depict, is how he found them. He always defines the framing at the time of recording the image, nothing is cropped when he prints the pictures. He also does not worry himself with dating and naming the subject. His photos just have to speak for themselves. The examples depicted in this book, made during the second half of his life, also do this.

His photographic eye is unmistakably similar to that of photographers like Moholy-Nagy, Kertesz and Wols in the nineteen twenties and thirties. His viewpoint, however, is distinguished by a unique ambience and sensitivity. The darkness is striking in many of his pieces, equally as striking as the absence of people. Once in a while they do appear in the images, but they then merge into the other objects and are often no more than shadows. Baumgärtner’s photos are enigmatic. Where do the stairs begin in the darkness, what could that bright light be in a shed, what is going on behind that strikingly large window? There is always particular attention for what seems to be scattered over a surface. Whoever is familiar with Klaus Baumgärtner’s whole oeuvre will come across phenomena in his photos that are reminiscent of his quirky untitled plastic objects.