Yesterday was the last of The Photography Show presented by AIPAD. 5 days filled with thousand of photographs, hundred of encounters old and new in the alleys of The Armory. This was a “good vintage” where classic and contemporary seem to have found a balance and co-exist and no, the announced tsunami of AI didn’t land to our shores.
This few lines were going to open a review on The Show, then serendipity happened. Seeing an old friend between two booths who pointed me to the work of the German photographer Jan C. Schlegel at Echo Fine Arts from Cannes.
Without him, I might have missed it.
The three series presented caught my eye, from flowers to architecture while passing through nudes.
So here they are, the screen doesn’t really do justice to them, especially to My Secret Garden, visualize gorgeous platinum prints on thin Japanese paper which are also pressed with white gold through the back of the print…
Until next year in New York.
Cheers.
G.
MY SECRET GARDEN (2026)
My Secret Garden is a series of handmade platinum print photographs. Created from large format collodion negatives, the works focus on tulips reduced to form, surface, and structure.
The tulips were cultivated specifically for this series, planted in the artist’s garden the year before. This deliberate preparation extends the work beyond the moment of exposure, embedding it in a longer process of observation and anticipation.
Observed at close distance and removed from their natural context, the flowers begin to shift. What is commonly perceived as decorative becomes precise and almost architectural. The images do not describe the subject, but isolate it—allowing form to unfold.
The use of handmade collodion negatives introduces irregularities and artifacts that become part of the image itself, reinforcing its physical presence. In addition to the standard platinum prints, selected works are also available as a special edition printed on handmade Japanese Gampi paper, mounted on gold—introducing a further layer of material depth and fragility.
Each work is produced as a platinum print, known for its tonal range and permanence, and released in strictly limited editions.
SHALIMAR (2025)
Shalimar is a photographic series that reconsiders portraiture as a collaborative and attentive process shaped by time, trust, and shared presence. The title, derived from Persian and historically linked to places of care, devotion, and quiet delight, suggests an atmosphere rather than a subject. Centered on Ksenia, a 27-year-old woman from Kazakhstan, the work develops through an ongoing exchange between photographer and subject, resulting in images that reflect both her presence and the perspective behind the camera.
Created within a traditional studio setting, the series grows out of everyday life without staging or rigid structure. Schlegel worked with large- and medium-format film and, for the first time, produced albumen prints—a historically significant and technically demanding process requiring precision and patience. This approach shapes the visual language of the work, defined by soft light, restrained tonality, and a focus on clarity and attention, emphasizing not only what is shown but the conditions under which each photograph is made.
https://privateviews.artlogic.net/2/d7191c42d83cc62278b4e2/
SILENT GIANTS, PORTRAITS OF BRUTALISM (2026)
Jan C. Schlegel’s Silent Giants transforms Brutalist architecture into quiet, monumental presences through handmade platinum prints made with large-format cameras. These works reject architectural documentation, instead treating buildings as portraits—revealing rhythm, tension, and stillness through prolonged observation of light and surface.
What begins as concrete mass slowly assumes human qualities: character, mood, history. Born from utopian ambitions, many now stand abandoned or misunderstood, their surfaces bearing traces of human ambition and memory. Schlegel photographs them with the patience reserved for people—with soft light and deep attention beyond the façade.
Each platinum print, prized for its tonal depth and permanence, is released in limited editions (56 × 76 cm, 40 × 50 cm) or as a complete portfolio of 19 works. In Silent Giants, Brutalism transcends style to become deeply human presences.
https://privateviews.artlogic.net/2/e492c02f21f4d25253ea7b/
https://echofinearts.com/artists/jan-schlegel/
Echo Fine Arts
19 Boulevard Victor Tuby
06400 Cannes, France
www.echofinearts.com
