Thomas Wunsch
"C.O.D.E."

Exhibition: 11 October – 16 December, 2016
Opening reception: Tuesday, 11 October, at 7:30pm

During our lifetime we spend many years traveling. In fact, we travel more than ever before in history. We pass public spaces and we encounter everyday things as we do so. Most of the time, we tend not to notice them. But German photographer Thomas Wunsch does. It is the inconspicuous detail that catches his eye. And this is what he highlights in his photographs, giving them a very special aura.

The photographs of Thomas Wunsch depict many different subjects and by making those subjects abstract - beyond recognition - he confers them a special aesthetic value. It is in these pictures that we encounter a kafkaesque symbolism and a very different kind of emotion. Coincidence is a key quality of his pictures that enables him to explore the myth of the ordinary. He is a gentle and discrete observer, authentic yet never voyeuristic. He is also an aesthete whose attention to detail and his sophisticated processing result in highly distinctive photographs. Thomas Wunsch skillfully plays with our sensory perception and gives the viewer more than just a fixed view of the world. "What you see is what you get" is the photographer’s underlying concept. Looking at his photographs is an intimate experience in which the images become a part of the viewer. His photographs have a magical and mysterious quality and they are also very rhythmic. So it is not surprising that the distinguished German record company ECM has been publishing his photographs for the past 16 years as CD and LP covers.

Thomas Wunsch started working in the field of photography at age 17, when he moved to the USA and became a member of the Kodak Young Photographers League. When he opened a photo studio in Hamburg he devoted himself to fashion, still life and portrait photography (he took pictures of Barbra Streisand, Sir George Solti, Frank Zappa, Yoko Ono, Dalai Lama, Led Zeppelin, Jeff Koons, Debra Winger, Sting, Ai Weiwei, Harvey Keitel, Daniel Barenboim and many other international celebrities). He also had his first two solo exhibitions in Hamburg at Gallery Palme. After he moved to the USA again, Thomas Wunsch was working as a still photographer at a movie production company for many years. He started taking abstract photographs in the year 2000.

The photographs of Thomas Wunsch were exhibited at the Huantie Times Art Museum in Beijing, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Overbeck Museum in Bremen, the Okgwa Museum in Gokseong, the Museum im Wehener Schloss and numerous galleries throughout the world. 21 books featuring his photographs have been published, including his most recent ones "Enemies of Reason", "The Impertinence of Beauty" and "Wages of Sin". Thomas Wunsch is a member of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) New York, a founding member of 360 Minutes of Art, a member of the World Photography Organisation, a member of the American Photography Association and a member of the International Center of Photography, New York.

More information: www.wunsch-photography.com