‘Atelier’ (2014). Thomas Demand.
German photographer Thomas Demand has become celebrated for his compelling, sometimes shocking, abstract recreations of the everyday. He talks to Anna Wallace-Thompson about the homogenization of our worlds, finding power in the banal, and Saddam Hussein?s kitchen.
Thomas Demand
There?s a particular moment of calm ? let?s call it suspended time ? when things have settled down while still retaining the memory of the movement that filled them a split second before. Think of the moment when that last dust mote finally settled after drifting down a shaft of light, or the ghostly echoes of the last flutter of a piece of paper as it relaxes into place. Or when you don?t know if the door just slammed shut or is about to burst open. Or sensing the presence of people only through their absence. That?s the moment German photographer Thomas Demand is interested in. Follow LUX on Instagram: the.official.lux.magazine
In fact, at first glance, Demand?s photographs appear simply to be snaps of ordinary places, unremarkable for their sameness, from half-empty supermarket shelves to a bath awaiting its occupant. (This is something that struck him about modern urban spaces, particularly when he first arrived in the US.) Yet, these seemingly humble snaps of everyday situations have earned him a place in the collections of international institutions such as the Guggenheim and MoMA. At auction, his works have sold for more than $100,000 at Christie?s...