Vera Lutter

1960 | Kaiserslautern, Germany
Informations
Sponsor
— Gagosian Gallery

German photographer.

Trained as a sculptor, Vera Lutter studied at the Kunstakademie in Munich before receiving a Master of Fine Arts in 1995 from the School of Visual Arts in New York. Contemplating the city led her to capturing its energy, light and architecture through the most primitive photographic technique: the pinhole camera, or camera obscura, which led to her recognition. She “dramatised” the device by transforming a room in her apartment, and later, containers or construction trailers, into vast photographic chambers, covering the walls with light sensitive paper. The light emitted by the elements of the urban landscape is projected through the narrow hole of these unique pinhole cameras. In these shots taken at various sites (Battersea, Great Britain, 2004; Campo Santa Sofia, Venice, 2007), the exposure time of the sensitive surface can vary from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the outdoor conditions. The only material evidence of these photographic “performances” are the negative images, which are thus unique pieces.

The large format of these polyptychs leaves a strong physical impression on the viewer: as if immersed in a kind of photographic environment, the viewer is forced to circumambulate (that is, to move around a sacred object), if they want to grasp the representation in its entirety. Enigmatic and ghostly visions of urban and industrial landscapes, emptied of any human presence, her images straddle the border between document and wondrous, poetic revelations. In this way, the artist follows in the continuity of a certain German photographic tradition, both documentary and objective, such as that of Albert Renger-Patzsch, or the Becher family. V. Lutter’s works, held in a number of institutions, particularly in North America, are regularly shown in Europe and across the Atlantic, in solo and group exhibitions.

Damarice Amao

Translated from French by Katia Porro.

From the Dictionnaire universel des créatrices
© 2013 Des femmes – Antoinette Fouque
© Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions
Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Cold Spring, IX: February 17, 2014, gelatin silver print 139.1 x 266.1 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Marble Statues of Aphrodite and Hercules: January 7, 2013, 2013, gelatin silver print, 54 x 35.6 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Maria Laach V: October 20, 2010, 2010, gelatin silver print, 205.3 x 142.2 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Mycernius Pyramid, Giza: April 22, 2010, 2010, gelatin silver print, 37.8 x 76 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Nabisco Factory, Beacon, IV: September 14-19, 1999, 1999, gelatin silver print, 256.5 x 426.7 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, New York City, Last Quarter, 2011, archival pigment print, 65.7 x 86 x 4.4 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Pepsi Cola, Long Island City, VII: June 24, 1998, gelatin silver print, 228.6 x 426.7 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Rheinbraun, IX: August 30, 2006, gelatin silver print, two panels, 243.21 x 264.5 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, San Marco, Venice XVIII: November 29-30, 2005, 2005, gelatin silver print, 237.5 x 284.5 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Times Square, New York, V: July 31, 2007, 2007, geltin silver print, 256.5 x 142.2 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

Vera Lutter — AWARE Women artists / Femmes artistes

Vera Lutter, Zeppelin, Firedrichshafen, III: August 17-20, 1999, gelatin silver print, 142.2 x 147.3 cm, © Vera Lutter and Gagosian Gallery, © ADAGP, Paris

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