Georg Küttinger: Landscapes Remixed
Writer Stefanie Ball introduces German photographer Georg Küttinger, who is known for his “mosaic” constructions of nature. Meticulously constructed, Küttinger’s hyperreal photographs tell us something about the nature of beauty and the power of nature.
Küttinger takes multiple images of a landscape at different
times and angles and then combines them to effectively re-create the scene. In many ways, his work alternates
between photography, painting, and even music.
There’s a rhythm to Laguna (2013) that feels orchestral. The wooden poles vibrate in their oscillation of heights and in the fractioning of their reflections. There is understanding in repetition—in seeing something over and over again, each time different yet still the same.
In addition to constructing a scene piece by piece, image by image, Küttinger often layers his photographs. Küttinger combines images that span the same landscape, but that are taken from different seasons and angles. These multilayered works metaphorically, and perhaps even factually, present us with the experience of being in a given place.
Kreta (2013) is a poignant example of this notion of experience. Painterly in its patchwork of the land, the work presents fragments of the rolling hills taken at different times and in different seasons, with a juxtaposition of colors that is surreal. We’ve become so accustomed to perfection in images, that perfection in nature often disappoints. Küttinger reminds us that it doesn’t. Nature is as complex and impressive as it’s always been.
—Stephanie Ball
