An encounter with The Followers, by German photographer Bettina von Zwehl, defies expectation at first glance. Von Zwehl, who in this instance has shelved her signature style of subtle and delicately directed portraits, has instead presented a series of isolated, painterly black shapes at her current exhibition at Purdy Hicks Gallery. To the fleeting passerby, they might appear to be no more than obscure silhouettes— dreamt up miscellanies from the most abstract of imaginations, yet their process is firmly rooted in photographic tradition. This is the very same Von Zwehl, but not as you may know her.
Within The Followers, Von Zwehl errs on the unconventional, in using neither camera nor photographic negative in her image making, but rather a series of other traditional, methodical processes. By utilising wet tray printing, she developed individual exposed sheets of photopaper, before reducing to fragments by way of tearing, followed by drying and finally, repeating the processes again. Each selected paper fragment was finally printed onto etching paper and framed. Having endured each specific stage, these pieces of paper take on a whole new identity and purpose, unlinked specifically to image in a sense of what they display, but rather to their own shape and form.
Trailing up and down the four gallery walls, these shapes (some high above eye level) each with their own character and energy, are strengthened by curative choices— frame size, spacing and positioning. However, although likely chosen from tens or hundreds of others, it remains unclear if their forms and shapes themselves were accidental or deliberate based on some of their vague likenesses to everyday objects. They possess a curious, bemusing otherness, which in turn brings more questions to mind— are these even truly photographs? For an approach and form so minimal, they challenge just what a photograph can be, in a large way.
There’s also something very curious about the choice to present these exposed fragments on paper intended originally for drawing or painting; the darkroom itself is arguably the gateway between photography and the original fine-arts, but this choice in particular takes that notion one step further. Each of the images has been framed, complete with fraying edges, indicating the extraction of the paper from a sketch pad or similar source. Even when looking closer at the black shapes themselves, they appear to be surrounded with a shadowy, watery grey wash of diluted paint (which in reality is the paper’s tear marks). There are times when you can’t help but wonder why the artist didn’t just actually paint them— why use such intricate methods and processes, in order to ultimately mimic another?
Nethertheless, contrary to its titling, The Followers is a series with no intention of conforming for the sake of it. Maybe collaborative would be a stretch, but then and there in the gallery when pacing up and down the works, there does feel as though there’s some fun and thought-provoking give and take between artist and audience. Unlike so many approaches to image making, the work isn’t just done for you; there are no right or wrong answers, which given the time in which we are living, seems indeed a relief.
– reviewed for Photomonitor by Dorrell Merritt
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The Followers by Bettina von Zwehl continues at Purdy Hicks Gallery until 2nd March, 2019.
