Michael Wesely

For over three decades, Michael Wesely (born 1963) has created revelatory photographs using large-format lenses on self-made, long-exposure cameras. The resulting exposure times are extraordinary—not merely minutes and hours, but days, months and even years. Familiar objects often become only partially recognizable, opening up new perceptions of time and space. His images seem caught in the processes of both becoming and unraveling; what remains is fragmentary, comparable to the ambiguity of Antonioni’s thriller Blow-Up. Wesely sees his photos as archival excerpts from the present, inviting us to consider them as “visual archaeology” and to imagine our own stories behind their creation. The Camera Was Present celebrates his 20-year collaboration with Galerie Fahnemann and traces the evolution of his photography from 2010 to 2020.

For five years the renowned Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin was closed to the public for renovation. Nevertheless, the acclaimed German photographer Michael Wesely (born 1963), best known for his long-exposure technique and publications such as Open Shutter and Time Works, was permitted to bring four “guests” inside the iconic building. Wesely’s four cameras, each one pointing in a different direction, were installed on the ceiling. Every day they took between 600 and 1,100 pictures with an exposure time of two minutes each. Edited into sequences of bewitching montages, this fascinating compendium allows readers to envision the building’s metamorphosis while undergoing renovations. The long exposure time is an aesthetic coup, for ephemeral, restless, rapid movements contrast with the still, timeless quality of the architecture, presenting a sophisticated interplay of identity and change.