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| Tom Lemke, The Portrait Series 21 September – 6 October 2007 |
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| “He is successful in taking photographs of faces in an absolutely direct and brutal form. Rarely have I seen such ugly, beautiful photographs.” – Markus Lüpertz, Director, Academy of Art, Düsseldorf How many faces have you looked at? Who has counted them? How often have you taken a second look and nothing’s happened? Faces are fleeting. The young girl’s face in the underground, still charming, set apart from the uniformed smiles, is already on the escalator – out of sight, out of mind. A daily occurrence. In the photographs of Tom Lemke, a person appears and their face tells their life story. In doing so, the photographer asks for a dialogue in simple surroundings: his subject sits in front of a black cotton cloth background, direct light from a softbox projecting a silhouette of the photographer onto the pupils of his subject. Whoever delves into Tom Lemke’s portraits, quickly grasps there is no symmetrical human face. Crooked mouths, uneven eyebrows, bent noses, hanging cheeks, bulging eyes – wherever you look that’s reality.” – Heinrich Heil, Philosophy Lecturer, National University, Karlsruhe and Academy of Art and Media,Cologne Tom Lemke studied painting at the Academy of Art, Düsseldorf, from 1990 to 1995 under artistic director Markus Lüpertz. The Portrait Series is an ongoing project, with new portraits added at each destination. Andreas Gursky was the first person to sit for The Portrait Series, since then he has been joined by a gallery of renowned artists, writers and personalities. Photo captions: German photographer Andreas Gursky, left. Fashion styllist Ainur Otyakmaz, right. |
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