The photographs of Stefan Heyne (born 1965) are emphatically nonrepresentational. The artist omits elements that generally define a photograph, forgoing the use of any identifiable motif. Instead he creates abstract photographs that are honed to perfection by paring his imagery to a blurred play of light and shadows with no indication of form. In his most recent series of works, Heyne even avoids the use of soft focus as an artistic device and emphasizes, in contrast, the high-definition reproduction of perhaps one of the purest motifs of all: the cloudless sky, photographed by the artist from the window of an airplane. The color spectra of pure light that are revealed in these images seem blurry and out of focus, but in fact are not. In these photographs, the viewer is confronted with an endless depth of space. Heyne thus achieves the most radical degree of abstraction in his work to date.
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Hubertus von Amelunxen, Stefan Gronert, Karin Irvine.
Countering the Becher School’s emphasis on crisp execution, German photographer Stefan Heyne (born 1965) embraces more fugitive effects of shadow play and hazy light. This volume looks at his most recent works, which press this tendency even further, forgoing depiction in an attempt to “paint with light.”
Stefan Heyne: Speak to Me