Of all of Gursky's photographs, his image of the Rhine has always been my favourite.
I vividly remember seeing it for the first time in one of Mark Bolland's lectures in the first year of my BA.
Mark showed a photograph taken at the exact same location as where Gursky took Rhine II - showing the giant smoke-spewing power plant that really exists there, and explained how Gursky had chosen to censor this element of the scene, by simply cutting it out. The severity of the horizon in Gursky's photograph (where the power plant should be) and the lack of detail in the sky has always made me imagine Gursky running a scalpel along the print and 'cutting it out' physically - I've always felt that's important.
In BBC4's Genius of Photography series when asked 'What is a Gursky' Ben Lewis replies:
Also, Ben Lewis' short film on Gursky is well worth a look: Gursky World
Here are some comments I took from the Daily Mail's coverage of the sale of Rhein II.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060667/How-expensive-picture-Be-right-place-right-time-apply-spot-wizardry.html
I vividly remember seeing it for the first time in one of Mark Bolland's lectures in the first year of my BA.
Mark showed a photograph taken at the exact same location as where Gursky took Rhine II - showing the giant smoke-spewing power plant that really exists there, and explained how Gursky had chosen to censor this element of the scene, by simply cutting it out. The severity of the horizon in Gursky's photograph (where the power plant should be) and the lack of detail in the sky has always made me imagine Gursky running a scalpel along the print and 'cutting it out' physically - I've always felt that's important.
In BBC4's Genius of Photography series when asked 'What is a Gursky' Ben Lewis replies:
Well it has to talk to us about Globalisation... and it can't just be a landscape, it has to be a kind of globalised, urbanised, semi-rural, mixed-use landscape and it can't just be a panorama, it has to have layers that conform to certain traditions of pictorial composition.Isn't that great?!
Also, Ben Lewis' short film on Gursky is well worth a look: Gursky World
Here are some comments I took from the Daily Mail's coverage of the sale of Rhein II.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060667/How-expensive-picture-Be-right-place-right-time-apply-spot-wizardry.html
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