Isabelle Van Zeijl

Isabelle Van Zeijl - I AM 2, Photography 2020, Printed After

Los Angeles-based photographer Tyler Shields seeks “beauty in chaos,” capturing both young models and celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. His polished editorial imag...

ALBERT WATSON (*1942, Scotland) Mick Jagger/Leopard 1992/2011 Chromogenic print Image 195,6 x 152,4 cm (77 x 60 in.) Sheet 238,7 x 177,8 cm (94 x 70 in.) Frame 245 x 185,6 x 6 cm (96 1/2 x 73 1/8 x 2 3/8 in.) Edition of 5; Ed. no. 5/5 (from a sold out edition) Albert Watson (*1942, Scotland) is a Scottish photographer well known for his fashion, celebrity, and art photography, having shot over 200 Vogue and 40 Rolling Stone covers since the mid-1970s. His photographs are signature, classical, and bold, and in our world of manipulation, Watson prefers the enlargers and the trays; an artist who greatly enriches our perception with his unique photographic view. Photo District News named Watson one of the 20 most influential photographers of all time, along with Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, among others. Watson shared intimate moments about shooting celebrities like Johnny Depp, 50 Cent and Clint Eastwood and dove into the history behind famous shots like the double exposure of Mick Jagger and the leopard that Watson shot by chance. "The leopard was all over Mick so we had to build a glass partition...

For the 1994 Pirelli Calendar shot on the Paradise Island in the Bahamas, photographer Herb Ritts set out to capture in a series of nudes what he called “the gentle innocence” of Kat...

I met this Sadhu with such kind eyes in Kashi (another name for Varanasi) on one of the chaotic ghats. We tried and failed to take the portrait as crowds and sacred cows constantly streamed between us. Fortunately a group of young boat-hands gave up their relatively sheltered corner of the ghat, where they had been gambling over cards, to give us five minutes of calm space. John uses simple natural light and builds primitive makeshift studios from locally acquired white sheets! The suffuse light allows him to capture a remarkable level of detail. His subjects calm demeanor belies the reality of harsh arid winds, extreme temperatures and dust. John Kenny’s black and white photographic portraits are taken on location in some of the remotest corners of Africa and India. All shot with natural light and with the subjects in their day to day attire they reveal the pride and strength inherent in tradional ways of life. The C-type prints are mounted with an acrylic face mount...

Otjitando is a Himba woman from the deserts of Namibia. She lives in a nomadic society and decorates her skin and hair with red mud. Otjitando gazes confidently at the viewer, ex...

Otjitando is a Himba woman from the deserts of Namibia. She lives in a nomadic society and decorates her skin and hair with red mud. Otjitando gazes confidently at the viewer, ex...

Diptychon # 30 Color photograph Signed, numbered, dated and titled by hand Edition: 12 + III COA provided Thomas Florschuetz (German, born 1960) recently emigrated from East Germany...

Diptychon # 34 Color photograph Signed, numbered, dated and titled by hand Edition: 12 + III COA provided Thomas Florschuetz (German, born 1960) recently emigrated from East Germany...

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, or the creation of avatars are also interesting worldwide phenomena of virtual realities that are not only relevant for children and teens. So when a middle-aged Berlin photographic artist (like Christian Rothmann) chooses to study 120 toy robots with great difference in form, it represents a journey back to his own childhood - even if at the time, he played with a steam engine rather than a robot. Once batteries had been inserted, some of the largely male or gender-neutral robots, could flash, shoot, turn around and even do more complicated things. Some can even still do it today - albeit clumsily. This, of course, can only be seen on film, but the artist intends to document that as well; to feature the robots in filmic works of art. The positioning of the figures in the studio is the same as the tableau of pictures in the exhibition room. In this way, one could say Rothmann deploys one robot after the other. This systematic approach enables a comparative view; the extreme enlargement of what are actually small and manageable figures is like the macro vision of insects whose fascinating, sometimes monster-like appearance only becomes visible when they are blown up a hundredfold. The same thing goes for the robots; in miniature form, they seem harmless and cute, but if they were larger than humans and made noises to match, they would seem more threatening. Some of the tin figures...

Hans (Immaculate Springs) - 1998 Edition of 5, 58x57cm, plus 2 Artist Proofs. Analog C-Print, hand-printed by the artist, based on the Polaroid. Signature Label and Certificate. ...