Arno Schidlowski: Inner Skies

Inner Skies presents two recent bodies of work from photographer, Arno Schidlowski (b. 1975, Germany). Taking inspiration from literary and artistic romantic traditions that harness nature to convey an internal state of mind, Schidlowski’s long-term photographic explorations use landscapes as a way of expressing mood and emotion. His distinctive, crystalline images, capturing mountainous and woodland settings across Europe, transform universal scenery into places of private reflection.

The medium of photography is essential to his work, offering the means of repetition, changing focus and point of view as a way to convey a particular artistic and psychological enquiry. Single images are bound into rhythmic lyrical sequences that amplify his relationship to the environment. The dream-like continuity in his sequence of images provokes the impression of a non-physical and immaterial relation between author and surrounding – distant places unite atmospherically and independently of order of discovery. His insistence on hand-printing is another integral part of realising a work, completing a personal and individual interpretation of reality, and ensuring his presence is threaded through every stage.

The two series exhibited here exemplify his practice, reflecting sequences of images that are somehow timeless, detached from a specific chronology or any singular journey. Shot on film and printed by hand, the tonally rich and atmospheric photographs in each series, play with perspective and focus to foreground personal trails of thought that transcend time and place.

Arno Schidlowski studied photography at the University of Applied Sciences, Dortmund and trained for his Master’s degree with Ute Mahler at the University of Applied Sciences, Hamburg. His work has been recognised at various photo festivals and competitions, including Recontres d `Arles, Otto-Steinert-Award and LeadAwards.