Wolfgang Tillmans

Asides from his Abstract work, Tillmans earlier works centered more on portraits and images depicting people in the artist's life. When asked "Who does he photograph?" The answer he gives is: "people that I love in some way, that I want to embrace." The people in this selection of photograph have a sense of personal intimacy, not only does he include one-to-one relationships, he also documents and records the friendship and love within people of his group. This personal sense of intimacy is most prominent in his work that includes his late partner, Jochen Klein.

 

Unlike the more theatrical works of Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, Tillmans's protraits blur the distinction between public and private people. He works instead at various points along a hypothetical line between a totally found image and a totally staged one. Tillman's intention is not to document a specific subculture, he has never shot for an advertising campaign, nor did he follow the path of a fashion photographer. "I never set out to be the photographer of the nineties, the techno generation," he says "but these were the people I felt close to."

 

His reccurents themes are: quiet observation of nature and everydays things, hanging out with friends, sex, political activism, dancing. All of which are free, none of these themes or subjects involve buying or selling.