Andreas Gursky

Andreas Gursky is a German visual artist, born in Leipzig in 1955, known for his large format architectural and landscape photographs.

Andreas Gursky

Between 1981 and 1987, Gursky studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, where he was heavily influenced by his teachers Hilla and Bernd Becher. The Bechers are known for their distinctive method of cataloging industrial machinery and architecture without any emotion or passion. Gursky's large scale photographs show a similar method.

99 cent

Before the 1990's, none of Gursky's images were digitally enhanced. However, since then he has openly admitted that he relies a lot on computers to edit and enhance his images. A lot of his photographs are taken from an elevated vantage point, which enables him to show scenes that are normally beyond reach. Some good examples are his '99 cent' photograph and the 'Chicaco Board of Trade' photograph.

Chicago Board of Trade

Whilst Gursky is very famous for his busy scenes full of colour, one mustn't forget his landscape photography. Gursky's 'Rhein II' photograph, depicting an empty landscape with the river Rhine flowing through it, sold at Christie's auction house in New York for $4.3m (£2.7m) in 2008. This makes it the most expensive photograph ever sold.

Rhein II

I am very torn when I look at Gursky's photographs. On the one hand, I really don't like his images. It's chaotic, it's too busy or in the case of 'Rhein II' it's simply too boring. But on the other hand, I totally get his work. I can see what his intentions were and I can see what makes these images so special. I suppose this is the difference between looking at something as the 'normal me' or as the 'photographer me'. One thing his images do for both 'me's' is mesmerise me. They have this abillity to make you look at them for long times and constantly find something different you didn't see before. Very special indeed.