CRISTALLOGRAMMES

AFTER ALFRED EHRHARDT

2019

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Photograms of objects from archive materials, pigment prints on Baryte paper

28 x 20 cm ; with frame : 50 x 60 cm

This series stems from an invitation extended by the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation to reinterpret the work of Alfred Ehrhardt.

Le Minh took an especial interest in Ehrhardt's photographs of crystals and minerals from 1938-39. The relationship between volume and light as well as the effects of transparency and diffraction with which Ehrhardt is playing masterfully in these photographs produce a remarkable synthesis of his musical education, his studies at the Bauhaus, and his readings in German Naturphilosophie.

Cristallogrammes is a series of photograms resulting from small, abstract constructions that Le Minh has assembled out of materials employed in the archiving of photographs and then placed directly on light-sensitive paper – playing with the density and transparency of the materials as well as with the translation from three- to two-dimensionality. The products of this process, which bear a striking resemblance to Ehrhardt’s crystals and minerals, once again draw into question the objectivity often attributed to Ehrhardt and remind us that photographs can also lure us into illusion.