Buchkunst Berlin Gallery presents, for the first time at the international photo fair Unseen in Amsterdam, a solo exhibition featuring works by photographer Johnny Miller from Thursday, September 19, to Sunday, September 22, 2024 at booth 39. The artist will be present throughout the entire fair.
PROGRAMME
INVITATION TO THE TALK AT THE PHOTO FAIR UNSEEN, AMSTERDAM Date: Sunday, September 22 Time: 12:00 - 13:00 Location: Meijburg Lounge Event: “TO THE EVENTS AT UNSEEN” Speaker: Thomas Gust in conversation with Johnny Miller
_ A New Image of the World: The Photographs of Johnny Miller
The American photographer Johnny Miller will discuss his series “Unequal Scenes” and “Salt Works” with gallery owner Thomas Gust. The “Unequal Scenes” series features aerial photographs that capture the territorial transitions and spatial divisions between different neighborhoods and social groups, visualizing economic and social inequalities in a new way. The “Salt Works” series further explores these themes through innovative visual narratives.
The unusual perspective of these drone images creates intriguing patterns of abstraction, which not only fascinate but also highlight social injustices and the complexities of global developments. This dialogue will explore the themes of urban spaces, visual and social transitions, the associated economic and ecological connections, and the relationship between abstraction and enlightenment.
_ Johnny Miller Unequal Scenes & Salt Works
Johnny Miller's photographs from his series “Unequal Scenes” were taken with a drone. They depict the territorial and architectural transitions of social communities in large cities, particularly in the Global South. These overhead images visually illustrate inequality around the world. At the same time, the unusual perspective creates a pattern of abstraction that is fascinating to decipher, while also highlighting the problematic nature of global developments. The stunning views and the focus on urban spaces and their visual and social transition areas are unique in this regard.
In Miller's “Salt Works” series, the unusual perspective on the vividly colored landscape creates a captivating pattern of abstraction, which also points to the challenges of human intervention in nature. The panels resemble expressive paintings and showcase the process of salt extraction: seawater is channeled into artificially created evaporation basins, where salt growth is encouraged. The water’s color is influenced by microorganisms that change hue as the salt concentration increases. Once the ponds have dried out, the resulting layer of salt is harvested, washed, and transported away. Johnny Miller photographed “Salt Works” in Walvis Bay, Yucatan, Namibia, and in the San Francisco Bay Area. The breathtaking views and the emphasis on man-made landscapes, along with the city’s visual and social transition areas, are central themes in Johnny Miller's surveillance photographs, making them unique in this way.
_ THE GALLERY BUCHKUNST BERLIN GALLERY presents classic and contemporary positions of photography and photo-based art, mainly from the second half of the 20th century and the present. The gallery's programme includes a group of international artists whose work ranges from the iconic photographs of the medium to contemporary and new visualisation models and narrative structures of a young generation of photographers, combining these different approaches.
The gallery, which was founded in 2021 by Ana Druga and Thomas Gust, is located at Oranienburger Straße 27 in Berlin-Mitte, one of the centres for art and photography in Germany, whose art-historical impulses of the earlier and more recent history of this place shape our understanding of artistic development in the field of tension between avant-garde and a classical canon of photography.
In addition to 4-6 exhibitions per year, the gallery is also represented with its programmes at international art fairs such as photo basel, SCOPE / Art Fair Miami and Unseen Amsterdam. Long-standing partnerships with the archives of renowned visual artists are part of our work, ranging from historical collections to the viewing and processing of archives such as that of the German Magnum photographer Thomas Hoepker.
The design and publication of artistic photo books are part of our DNA and often expand the visual strategies of the respective works and the exhibition concepts. Our photo book publishing house Buchkunst Berlin, founded in 2018, publishes carefully designed and excellently printed books by internationally renowned photographers, with a focus on publications by gallery artists. The photo books are available in bookshops and museum shops worldwide and have been honoured several times with medals from the German Photo Book Award and nominated for the Paris Photo Aperture Book Award.The design and publication of artistic photo books are part of our DNA and often expand the visual strategies of the respective works and the exhibition concepts. Our photo book publishing house Buchkunst Berlin, founded in 2018, publishes carefully designed and excellently printed books by internationally renowned photographers, with a focus on publications by gallery artists. The photo books are available in bookshops and museum shops worldwide and have been honoured several times with medals from the German Photo Book Award and nominated for the Paris Photo Aperture Book Award.
CONTACT BUCHKUNST BERLIN GALLERY Oranienburger Str. 27 10117 Berlin