Andreas Gursky

Norman Bryson, Werner Spies

"In pursuit of his aim to create "an encyclopedia of life" Gursky's world view fuses the flux of reality with the stillness of metaphysical reflection. From initially using the computer as a retouching tool, he began exploring its transformative potential, sometimes combining elements of multiple shots of the same subject into an intricate yet seamless whole, at other times barely altering the image at all. Over time his subjects have expanded to map and distill the emergent patterns and symmetries of a globalized world with its consensual flows and grids of data and people, architecture, and mass spectacle. In the new Ocean series, with their darkly nuanced surfaces, Gursky has worked to reconcile the division between the machine eye and the human eye, continuing the debates and practices begun in the nineteenth century regarding photography and the issue of artistic expression...