Klaus A J Riederer – Fine Art Photography

"..I can't get rid of computers, television, (dis)information overflow from internet and elsewhere. But I do get everything, including my basic needs (i.e., food), without leaving the house, never to have any face-to-face contact to any living creature. I am a prisoner of my own internal world, a hermit who can't stand the daylight nor a touch of a person."

My most recent exhibition In My Black-and-White Life (I have never..) is hard criticism to the modern society and provocation to the people getting passive and forgetting the real values of the life while being always too busy and not having any time to contemplate.

Just this moment, as I'm updating this page (Sept 23, 2008, 4 PM) I hear from the radio about a 20 year-old youngster having shot dead nine of his schoolmates here in Finland (in Kauhajoki), and more or less similar thing happened here also less than one year ago - I can't think of how cracy we people come when we seek visibility in the internet and our ration becomes distorted as we get excluded (or make ourselves excluded) from the society and build up our own (so to say, virtual) reality in our heads. Now, considering my exhibition motive, what seemed to be a highly exaggerated fantasy back then in 2005, seems now to become reality in its worst extent. My prophecy being correct makes me no joyful person, as I see my fellow Finns following the absurdity of other less peace loving nations.

The exhibited works (Part III & IV: to be annonced; Part II: a series of 16 large-sized prints (typ. 80 * 60 cm², one canvas of size 112 * 145 cm² w/o text) involve written text in English and Finnish/Swedish along with the images, dissonance between which has a great significance. With my graphically rather simple, warm toned and monochromatic photographs I wish to create in-depth and pleasant feelings on the viewer. This state of mind I then call into question by contradictory text, i.e., the names of the works play an essential role in the photography series. Even further, the English vs. Finnish/Swedish names carry different meanings, which enforces the viewer to ponder deeper my motives.

Are we victims of the society or exploiting egoists?

Works

I am afraid, you need to wait and come to the exhibitions to see my most recent works in Part III & IV. However, you can see the previous works from Part II (shown in Laterna Magica, September 5 – 23, 2006) by clicking here (or the image above), which opens a new window.

Technique

Except the newest works in Part III & IV, I have taken all the photographs with film cameras (135, 6*7 cm, 4*5" format) around the world during years 1996 – 2006 and scanned them at the highest resolution, oil-mounted. All prints are (digitally) hand-made using best-quality rag-paper and Ultrachrome-pigmented inks, which brings out the finest details in an esthetic form and guarantees the best life-span (over a century, glass-framed and protected from direct sunlight). The most recent ones I have taken with a professional digital camera (Canon EOS 40D) using different techniques.

In My Black-and-White Life (I have never..)

Works

Technique

Exhibition calender

Further information