29 april 2022, Flor Linckens
An overwhelming landscape, captured in shades of gray
Until 15 May, Galerie Caroline O'Breen in Amsterdam has programmed a duo exhibition with work by the Dutch photographer Witho Worms, who invited his German colleague Jens Knigge for the occasion. The artists both offer a unique representation of the overwhelming Norwegian and/or Icelandic landscape, shot with a large format camera and printed by hand. The works form an exciting contrast since Knigge captured the landscape during the winter, with little daylight, while Worms traveled in the summer, which meant that he encountered little darkness.
Witho Worms studied visual anthropology, which entails the visual representation of groups of people in photography, film, other forms of (new) media, but also, for instance, paintings, tattoos and hieroglyphs. For Worms, this interest is mainly expressed in landscape photography, because landscapes lend themselves particularly well to the study of natural landscapes versus cultural landscapes, which have been adapted by humans. Worms is particularly fascinated by the landscapes in which this boundary is more vague. He started making coal prints because he felt that it should technically be possible to capture a mountain of coal — a remnant of the historically important but politically charged coal mining industry — with the same material. That way, the object and its representation merge. He still captures landscapes (mostly mountains) using a process that fell into disuse at the end of the 19th century — a technique Worms rediscovered and has been researching and refining for over fifteen years. This method of carbon printing is excellent for reproducing dark tones. For one of his most recent projects, Worms spent an extended period in Norway.
Witho Worms, Noorwegen 070, 2019, Galerie Caroline O'Breen
Worms: "I used two different pigments, a matte and a glossy one. As a result, you can see different details and shades in the black, right down to the deepest black. From different angles the print looks different each time, enabling you to experience the properties of the different pigments to their fullest. The process and the result fascinate me.”
In another project, Worms focused on polders, landscapes that have been reclaimed from the sea. He notices that as a society evolves, people gain a better understanding of how to extract value from the earth, often with dire consequences for the environment. Worms often spends months working on his projects, from traveling and experimenting to the actual process of printing. He is interested in the concept of 'rewilding', which was introduced by writer and environmentalist George Monbiot and can apply to both people and landscapes.
Jens Knigge, Skittenfjorden No.2, 2015, Galerie Caroline O'Breen
Minimalist landscape photographer Jens Knigge grew up in East Germany and trained as an engineer. Self-taught in photography, he usually opts for the archaic and analog platinum-palladium print, a technique he learned from a famous printer and which allows him to show all the subtle details he captures. His use of this technique is remarkable because the period in which he started as a photographer was marked by the rise of digital photography. In his practice, Knigge is interested in a certain austerity, which he finds in architecture, structural details or, as can be seen in this exhibition: snowy, often barely visible landscapes in the serene and overwhelming nature around the Arctic Circle. The sublime also plays an important role in that. His works were often captured under harsh conditions. Knigge's photography moves between figuration and abstraction and he seems to have an innate sense of light and shadow. The artist has a skilled artistic eye and he previously stated: “When I face a landscape, I already see it in platinum." Knigge's works are quite recognisable by the multitude of subtle gray tones and texture.
Jens Knigge, High North, 2014, Galerie Caroline O'Breen
