|
January 21, 2011
Hütte is part of a generation of German photographers that includes Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, and Andreas Gursky (now in their 40s), all of whom have been students of Bernd Becher, who over three decades has been an influential figure in the creation of a unique photographic aesthetic known as the Düsseldorf school.
Contrary to the humanist strand that dominated European photography until the 1950s, the Becher's systematic documentary-like photographs of industrial structures have been immensely influential in defining a new ideal in photography. In much the same vein, Hütte became known for his sober, clinical look at post-war German architecture, and later for his photographs that examined the uneasy interaction of buildings within the natural environment.
Axel Hütte, Audubon Swamp
If Hutte is known as the "landscape painter" among contemporary photographers, then the construction of visual space in his photographs makes us look into them as we might look at a stage set; they draw us in, stimulating our thoughts.
|
