ANTONY CAIRNS
For the occasion of the inaugural Photofairs New York, Sous Les Etoiles Gallery presents through four artists, the plastic potentialities of the photographic medium offered by computers and new technologies. This approach finds its origin in the theory of the aesthetics of information developed by the German philosopher Max Bense in the 1950s. This theory has since made it possible to develop bridges between philosophy, aesthetics, and the theory of art. The constructivist rigor and the internal logic of the work tend to constitute an abstract visual system, Germany having been a precursor country in this matter.
Gottfried Jäger (*1937) is one of the most important photographers and photo theorists of the post-war period. Alongside Otto Steinert and Bernd & Hilla Becher, Gottfried Jäger influenced generations of photographers with his non-representational photography and his teaching at the FH Bielefeld. As early as the 1960s, he developed the concept of "generative photography". In his work, the photographic means themselves become the object, the medium the object. He is thus considered one of the main founders and protagonists of "Concrete Photography". Gottfried Jäger's work is held in the permanent collections of the George Eastman House, Rochester; the Sprengel Museum, Hannover; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the Ruppert Collection, Museum Würzburg; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Fotomuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; and the National Library, Paris. Center Georges Pompidou and in several private collections in the United States.
In 2023, a major retrospective of his works - “ Gottfried Jäger.Photographs of Photography – Generative System – 1960-2020” was hosted by the Sprengel Museum Hannover (Feb-April) and by the Museum im Kulturspeicher Wurzburg (May-September 2023).
Karl Martin Holzhaüser, b. 1944 in Germany, is one of the earliest champions of Concrete Photography. Holzhäuser along the course of his career has creating a new genre in the field of cameraless photography that combines the stringency of premeditated instructions with elements of calculated chance. The work of Karl Martin Holzhäuser can be found in the collections of the Museum für Kunst und Geschichte, Freiburg; The Artothek Kunstverein, Bielefeld; the photographic collections of the cities of Leinfelden and Detmold; Marburger Kunstverein, Marburg; the Peter C. Ruppert Collection at The Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg; and the Schupmann Collection, among others.
Lilly Lulay (born 1985 in Frankfurt), studied photography, sculpture and media sociology in Germany and France. Her works examine photography as a cultural tool that forms an integral part of daily life. Since 2017 she investigates on the smartphone as a photographic tool which has significantly changed the functions and appearances of photography. In her mixed media projects, she explores the social, technical and economic structures linked to smartphone photography. Lulay’s works form part of private and public collections such as George Eastman Museum Rochester, Fondazione Fotografia Modena, Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Frankfurt, Art Collection DZ Bank Frankfurt, Art Vontobal, Zurich as well as Artothèques in Pessac, Pau and Limoge, France. Her works have been shown in these institutions as well as at Aperture New York, Die Ecke Santiago de Chile, Ballarat Foto Biennale Australia, Beaconsfield London, Foam Next Door Amsterdam, Festival Circulations Paris, Benaki Museum Athens and Museum für Konkrete Kunst Ingolstadt and at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota (FL, USA).
Antony Cairns (b. London, 1980) takes photographs at night, using the available light cast by buildings in urban centers like London, Tokyo and Los Angeles. His work is resolutely non-topographic, in the conventional sense in which photography has been used to record spaces, structures and architectural styles. Cairn's practice accepts and embraces the photographic medium in its sophisticated entirety: from the effect use of light on analog film, through a range of experimental darkroom processes, to an innovative and highly specialized understanding of the supports available to the photographic image in the twenty- first century. Cairns presents his work in a number of complementary but contrasting ways: from painstakingly layered and assembled artists books LDN (2010), LPT (2012), OSC (2016) to translucent films of silver gelatin applied directly to sheets of aluminium, LDN2 (2013 ), LDN3 (2014) to experiments with electronic ink, both in working electronic Ink readers. Cairns was also the winner of the 2015 Hariban Prize, resulting in a residency at the Benrido Collotype atelier in Kyoto. His work was recently acquired by the Albert & Victoria Museum (GB) et by La Maison Européenne de la Photographie (France).
