S.

S. Photograps by Beate Gutschow. Hatje Cantz, 2010. 72 pp., 34 duotone illustrations, 12x15". Images from.Hatje Cantz.

"Beate Gütschow’s exploration as an artist directly probes questions of pictorial representations of reality.

As a student in Hamburg and Oslo, she explored verisimilitude initially as a painter and installation artist and eventually became attracted to photography for its apparent, though qualified, ability to more faithfully and accurately represent reality."


The large-format black and white photographs in the book 'S' by Beate Gütschow seems "reminiscent of authentic documentations of urban scenes: monumental architecture, decaying buildings, rusty automobile parts.

Yet the images are the result of complex digital manipulation: they are montages consisting of numerous photos taken by Gütschow on her various journeys and later assembled to create a single picture.

They are often fragments of aging modern architecture - plain, unadorned concrete buildings, now crumbling and in part non-functional.


In this way, the artist thematizes ideas that have survived modernity while she also explores and scrutinizes the medium of photography as a representative of reality."


First quote from Museum of Contemporary Photography ; second quote from the publisher's description.