Charles Birnbaum Photography

Fernando Natalici, "MTA Subway Voyeur" photograph, New York City, 2015: An artful and secretly explorative composition of everyday city life by heralded NY underground photographer, ...

Christian Rothmann ROBOTNICS Series C-Print 2019 Edition S (Edition of 10) 12 x 8.3 inches (30.5 x 21 cm) Signed, dated and numbered verso Other Edition Sizes available: - Edition ...

Fernando Natalici, "MTA Subway Voyeur" photograph, New York City, 2015: An artful and secretly explorative composition of everyday city life by heralded NY underground photographer, ...

"Roxy Burlesk" Times Square Photograph, Manhattan, 1978: In 1978, photographer Fernando Natalici, the creative mind behind the graphic design for iconic venues like CBGB and the Mudd...

This entire series was inspired by a piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy in the UK. Nick Stern - who ironically has been called the Banksy of Los Angeles and goes by the s...

This entire series was inspired by a piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy in the UK. Nick Stern - who ironically has been called the Banksy of Los Angeles and goes by the street name "Plastic Jesus" -decided to set himself the challenge to recreate the original Banksy graffiti with as much accuracy as possible, including the texture of the walls where the stencils were on and the windows on the buildings here in Los Angeles. Most were recreated “in situation”, without any photo shop. Only two works “The Maid” and “The Lovers” required minimal photoshop. Nick is English as is Banksy but based in Los Angeles so finding brick walls or a sash window was fun to find for the shoots. All photographs are printed to order and signed, with a certificate of authenticity signed by Wallspace. They are printed on 20”x16”paper with a border included - be aware that images may not all be exactly the same size as the imagery has different layouts. The paper size will be framed to the same size. The paper is a heavy weight fine art paper Entrada. fine art print...

This entire series was inspired by a piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy in the UK. Nick Stern - who ironically has been called the Banksy of Los Angeles and goes by the street name "Plastic Jesus" -decided to set himself the challenge to recreate the original Banksy...

Selected from the Drew Carolan monograph MATINEE All Ages On The Bowery. Shot against a white seamless on the corner of Bleecker St. and Bowery in New York city in 1984 with a Rollei...

This entire series was inspired by a piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy in the UK. Nick Stern - who ironically has been called the Banksy of Los Angeles and goes by the street name "Plastic Jesus" -decided to set himself the challenge to recreate the original Banksy graffiti with as much accuracy as possible, including the texture of the walls where the stencils were on and the windows on the buildings here in Los Angeles. Most were recreated “in situation”, without any photo shop. Only two works “The Maid” and “The Lovers” required minimal photoshop. Nick is English as is Banksy but based in Los Angeles so finding brick walls or a sash window was fun to find for the shoots. All photographs are printed to order and signed, with a certificate of authenticity signed by Wallspace. They are printed on 20”x16”paper with a border included - be aware that images may not all be exactly the same size as the imagery has different layouts. The paper size will be framed to the same size. The paper is a heavy weight fine art paper Entrada. fine art print...

This entire series was inspired by a piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy in the UK. Nick Stern - who ironically has been called the Banksy of Los Angeles and goes by the street name "Plastic Jesus" -decided to set himself the challenge to recreate the original Banksy graffiti with as much accuracy as possible, including the texture of the walls where the stencils were on and the windows on the buildings here in Los Angeles. Most were recreated “in situation”, without any photo shop. Only two works “The Maid” and “The Lovers” required minimal photoshop. Nick is English as is Banksy but based in Los Angeles so finding brick walls or a sash window was fun to find for the shoots. All photographs are printed to order and signed, with a certificate of authenticity signed by Wallspace. They are printed on 20”x16”paper with a border included - be aware that images may not all be exactly the same size as the imagery has different layouts. The paper size will be framed to the same size. The paper is a heavy weight fine art paper Entrada. fine art print...

This entire series was inspired by a piece of graffiti by the street artist Banksy in the UK. Nick Stern - who ironically has been called the Banksy of Los Angeles and goes by the street name "Plastic Jesus" -decided to set himself the challenge to recreate the original Banksy...

Christian Rothmann ROBOTNICS Series C-Print 2019 Edition S (Edition of 10) 12 x 8.3 inches (30.5 x 21 cm) Signed, dated and numbered verso Other Edition Sizes available: - Edition M (Edition of 6) 35.4 x 23.6 inches (90 x 60 cm) - Edition L (Edition of 6) 47.2 x 31.5 inches (120 x 80 cm) - Edition XL (Edition of 3) 88.8 x 58.8 inches (225 x 150 cm) PUR - Price Upon Request -------------- Since 1979 Christian Rothmann had more than 40 solo and 80 group exhibitions worldwide. Christian Rothmann had guest lectures, residencies, art fairs and biennials in Europe, Japan, USA, Australia and Korea. Christian Rothmann (born 1954 in Kędzierzyn, Poland ) is a painter, photographer, and graphic artist.⁠ ⁠ In 1976 he first studied at the “Hochschule für Gestaltung” in Offenbach, Germany and moved to Berlin in 1977, where he graduated in 1983 at the “Hochschule der Künste”. From 1983 to 1995 he taught at the university as a lecturer and as an artist with a focus on screenprinting and American art history. To date, a versatile body of work has been created, which includes not only paintings but also long-standing photo projects, videos, and public art.⁠ ⁠ Guest lectures, teaching assignments, scholarships and exhibitions regularly lead Rothmann to travel home and abroad.⁠ ------------------------ Rothmann's Robots These creatures date back to another era, and they connect the past and the future. They were found by Christian Rothmann, a Berlin artist, collector and traveler through time and the world: In shops in Germany and Japan, Israel and America, his keen eye picks out objects cast aside by previous generations, but which lend themselves to his own work. In a similar way, he came across a stash of historic toy robots of varied provenance collected by a Berlin gallery owner many years ago. Most of them were screwed and riveted together in the 1960s and 70s by Metal House, a Japanese company that still exists today. In systematically photographing these humanoids made of tin - and later plastic - Rothmann is paraphrasing the idea of appropriation art. Unknown names designed and made the toys, which some five decades on, Rothmann depicts and emblematizes in his extensive photo sequence. In their photographs of Selim Varol's vast toy collection, his German colleagues Daniel and Geo Fuchs captured both the stereotypical and individual in plastic figures that imitate superheroes which were and still are generally manufactured somewhere in Asia. Christian Rothmann looks his robots deep in their artificially stylized, painted or corrugated eyes - or more aptly, their eye slits - and although each has a certain degree of individuality, the little figures remain unknown to us; they project nothing and are not alter egos. Rothmann trains his lens on their faces and expressions, and thus, his portraits are born. Up extremely close, dust, dents, and rust become visible. In other words, what we see is time-traces of time that has passed since the figures were made, or during their period in a Berlin attic, and - considering that he robots date back to Rothmann's childhood - time lived by the photographer and recipients of his pictures. But unlike dolls, these mechanical robots bear no reference to the ideal of beauty at the time of their manufacture, and their features are in no way modeled on a concrete child's face. In this art project the robots appear as figures without a context, photographed face-on, cropped in front of a neutral background and reduced to their qualities of form. But beyond the reproduction and documentation a game with surfaces is going on; our view lingers on the outer skin of the object, or on the layer over it. The inside - which can be found beneath - is to an extent metaphysical, occurring inside the observer's mind. Only rarely is there anything to see behind the robot's helmet. When an occasional human face does peer out, it turns the figure into a robot-like protective casing for an astronaut of the future. If we really stop and think about modern toys, let's say those produced from the mid 20th century, when Disney and Marvel films were already stimulating a massive appetite for merchandising, the question must be: do such fantasy and hybrid creatures belong, does something like artificial intelligence already belong to the broader community of humans and animals? It is already a decade or two since the wave of Tamagotchis washed in from Japan, moved children to feed and entertain their newly born electronic chicks in the way they would a real pet, or to run the risk of seeing them die. It was a new form of artificial life, but the relationship between people and machines becomes problematic when the machines or humanoid robots have excellent fine motor skills and artificial intelligence and sensitivity on a par with, or even greater than that of humans. Luckily we have not reached that point yet, even if Hollywood adaptations would have us believe we are not far away. Rothmann's robots are initially sweet toys, and each toy is known to have a different effect on children and adults. They are conceived by (adult) designers as a means of translating or retelling history or reality through miniature animals, knights, and soldiers. In the case of monsters, mythical creatures, and robots, it is more about creating visions of the future and parallel worlds. Certainly, since the success of fantasy books and films such as Lord of the Rings or The Hobbit, we see the potential for vast enthusiasm for such parallel worlds. Successful computer and online games such as World of Warcraft...