Born in 1951, Hendrik Faure previously studied medicine in the late 60’s and early 70’s, ultimately specialising in psychiatry, which he still practices today. His photographs, naturally and instinctively display an enormous depth of understanding of the psychological as well as the physical world.
As a self taught photographer and printer Faure’s fascination and love of photography began early at the age of sixteen with his first large format camera. Since the 1990’s his focus has been using the fine art techniques of the dark room: hand-coloured photos, cyanotypes, photogravures and mixed media and more recently owing to restricted movement he has concentrated on still life photogravures at his home in Reiffenhausen. Each print can take up to three days to produce and must be done using only one hand.
In the best traditions of 16th and 17th Century Vanitas movement, Faure’s still lives have reoccurring themes of life, beauty and decay. Flora and fauna wilt and dry alongside animals, reptiles, birds, skulls and mannequins. Despite the sombre nature of the subjects, his imagery is rich with emotive and silent composure. The distressed appearance of Faure’s work, often as a result of the gravure process, creates a venerable classicism and his sometimes-surreal scenes draw on human experience and reflect his physical self. The polarity of his own body – which only functions properly on one side – appears constantly throughout his work, visually split between the beauty of life and the presence of death.
Alongside Faure’s work L A Noble Gallery shows a selection of photogravures of Karl Blossfeldt from his book Urformen der Kunst (Art Forms in Nature). Blossfeldt published this work in 1928, preceding Faure by seventy years at the age of sixty-three, coincidentally the same age as Faure today. Blossfeldt’s plant structures complement the forms from nature predominant in Faure’s work and the still life genre accentuates the transience of both life and the photographic moment. The product of both artists is also the result of painstakingly detailed work in the studio and carefully calculated studies in formal arrangement.
Karl Blossfeldt (1865-1932) worked in Berlin as a sculptor and a teacher. He developed his own camera, providing greater magnification of his subject matter thereby emphasising the structural form of the plants, in order to create teaching materials for his students. These images became iconic in their own right as examples of the New Realism of 1920’s and 1930’s and are still used by teachers today in differing fields of architecture and design as well as fine art and photography.
“I am delighted to be able to show this remarkable work of Hendrik Faure together with images from Karl Blossfeldt’s iconic work. The psychological drama of Faure’s work contrasts with the architectural simplicity of Blossfeldt’s while both are masters of detailed photographic techniques. Furthermore the beauty of photogravure from the collector’s point of view is that not only do they have an incredible range of tone and stability of image but they also have the benefit of affordability.” Laura Noble, Gallery Director.
EXHIBITION
Still Life & Death
Until April 12, 2014
L A Noble Gallery
Maybe A Vole
51 King Henry’s Walk
London N1 4NH
