Andre Gursky (born 1955) is a German photographer who studied under Bernd and Hilla Becher at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, between 1981 and 1986.[1] Their influence is apparent in that his photographs have a formal, impersonal, documentary feel about them.
Although his body of work falls into a number of genres, it’s his architectural photographs that are of interest in the context of the ‘Negotiating the City’ project.
There is an impersonality or detached feeling about his work with the structure and pattern of the subject being used to represent grand urban landscape.
©Andre Gursky
Over the years he has produced ever larger photographs, ‘Montparnasse’ for example being over 2 metres by 4 meters. The vantage point when taking this photograph is ‘straight on’ – for the whole of the photograph, allowing him to emphasise the geometry the structure displays. This gives the viewer a perspective that would be impossible to replicate when viewed from a single position. His use of digital manipulation enables him to produce these perfect representations of urban architecture, with the same perspective an architectural drawing might do.
©Andre Gursky
It has been suggested his work is the very antithesis of that of Henri Cartier-Bresson and the ‘decisive moment’, being almost clinical in approach and result.[3]
@Andre Gursky
[1] http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gursky-centre-georges-pompidou-p11675
[2] http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gursky-chicago-board-of-trade-ii-p20191/text-summary
[3] http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/andreas-gursky-2349
Negotiating the City 