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KRISTALLKLAR

AFTER ALFRED EHRHARDT  · 2019

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UV direct prints on Plexiglas and pigment prints on paper

40 x 30 x 3 cm

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

In the series Kristallklar, Ehrhardt’s negatives – the source of the photographic proofs – are juxtaposed with landscapes Le Minh found in the internet, corresponding to the crystals’ regions of origin. Thus presenting the photograph in its initial stage – disclosing its original flaws as well as Ehrhardt’s retouching process – Le Minh reveals the photograph as an elaborated image, the result of a series of intentional operations. She plays with the ambivalent nature of photography, which is at once documentation and subjective construction, as for Ehrhardt the crystal represents both an object of study and a vehicle for conveying his perception of the world. The multiplication of various perspectives on the crystal ultimately points up the impossibility of presenting them all side by side – the impossibility of producing any “objective” image of it – while the apposition of microcosm and macrocosm also evident here manifests Ehrhardt’s affinity with the tradition of German Romanticism.

Sonia Voss