Andreas Gefeller

b. 1970, Germany

Images of urban areas that reveal views of public places and their surfaces, as well as offering insights into closed areas from a bird’s-eye perspective, form the basis of the SuperVisions work from the Düsseldorfer photographer Andreas Gefeller.

With the help of an arduous photographic technique, Gefeller manages these ‘possible’ and ‘impossible’ viewpoints. Hundreds of individual shots are digitally rejoined, resulting in the impression that the overall picture has originated from a much higher perspective.

The richness of detail which results from the high-resolution process of the ‘scanned’ surfaces, and the optical breaks between segments that originate through perspective shifts betray the uncommon formation process, although this realisation is only apparent to the observer through closer inspection. Consequently, like with his previous and often awarded photo work Soma – which portrays night-light images of deserted tourist holiday centres – Gefeller leads us into a tension-field between reality and fiction, making visible views that cannot be seen by the eye without manipulating the reality of the scene itself.

In SuperVisions, Gefeller reads the tracks that society leaves behind, and awakens curiosity within the observer about the utilisation and history of the portrayed urban ‘habitats’. Further viewer associations to espionage-satellite imagery and the consequential realisation over the restrictions of one’s own private realm provides SuperVisions with additional depth. Gefeller not only exhibits overview perspectives, he also points contextually to how modern man is overseen and supervised.

(Text: OPEN e v + a catalogue, 2005)