© Georg Gerster
Expositions du 13/5/2016 au 4/6/2016 Terminé
Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie Rämistrasse 18 8001 Zurich Suisse
What would we discover if we could see the world from above from every possible perspective and our field of vision was greater than that from the window of a passenger plane? What would we discover if we could float high above the ground without being pulled back down to earth by the force of gravity?Fabian & Claude Walter Galerie Rämistrasse 18 8001 Zurich Suisse
The pioneer of aerial photography, Georg Gerster, who was born in 1928 in Winterthur, answers our questions with the aerial photographs he took during more than 3,500 hours of flying in small aircraft. Following a series of successful solo exhibitions in New York, London and Paris over the years, as well as at the Fotostiftung (Swiss Foundation of Photography) in Winterthur, this is Gerster’s first solo exhibition at the Fabian & Claude Walter gallery in Zurich. The Unten von Oben | Below from Above exhibition features a selection from the Un Petit Tour du Monde and Paradise Lost series, from the photographer’s rich, analogue treasure trove of pictures.
© Georg Gerster
In 1858, Gaspar Félix Tournachon, known as Nadar, succeeded in taking the first aerial photograph in the world. Nadar’s aerial shots, which were taken from a hot air balloon, were used for land surveying and for the purpose of the geographical mapping of Paris. Around a hundred years later, Georg Gerster stepped into a small aeroplane in Sudan in order to begin taking his first aerial photographs. Although a hundred years separate the two photographers, they are both driven by the same fascination. With every flight and every metre of height gained, the Earth becomes completely transformed. Unpredictability is the rule and things never before perceived can be revealed. Characteristics of the landscape that are imperceptible from the ground are transformed into pictures when seen from a bird’s eye view. Fields become cubist shapes, watercourses mutate into abstract networks and streets turn to graphic microstructures. The Earth metamorphoses into a work of art. Georg Gerster records the pictures of the Earth with his analogue camera in colour photographs. His shots demonstrate his technical ability, his instinct for composition and his faith in serendipity, which means chancing across things without looking for them.
© Georg Gerster
With his photographs, Georg Gerster elevated aerial photography from being a means of aerial documentation to a photographic art form in its own right. The combination of abstract patterns in the landscapes and their wealth of different colours, together with the unusual aerial perspective, aims to inspire respect for the beauty of our planet and its structures that have evolved over thousands of years. His pictures trigger a need for recognition in the viewer and, in the words of the artist, are "jumping-off points for thoughts to flow".
Georg Gerster presents our world from above. This perspective illustrates what we all too often ignore, due to our everyday, earth-bound perspective: an awareness of the beauty, diversity and uniqueness of our planet.