Frank Mädler
Artist Statement
Landeinwarts
Translated from German, September 2002
My photographic style aims to produce images with a heightened degree of abstract reality, through the specific use of the photographic medium. Colour, texture, the relationship between focus and out-of-focus, choice of subject and picture format are some of the classic methods I employ to formulate photography in that border-realm between illustration and creative imaging.
I concentrate on large monochromatic areas, deliberately selected colour dominances, minimalist compositions and picture themes that are inspired by the discourses of painting. From the genre of landscape representation emerge "non-landscapes," in which the qualities of place, situation and "real stories" are overlaid with a formal picture action that variegates between abstraction and narrative text. Distance and monumentality of landscape are represented (sometimes replaced) by the monumental moments of composition and format.
I work out individual images, which I then usually arrange into ensembles. The resulting correspondence through the act of creation and calculation is an integral part of my artistic endeavor.
