Josef Schulz, born in 1966, in Bischofsburg, Poland, is an exceptionally creative and dynamic artist who has made a contribution in the German contemporary photography lineage.

Josef Schulz incorporates personal emotions and sensitivity into analog photography through the use of a highly technical medium of digital editing process. His working method resembles the process of a painter retouching a piece of work and as a result of this purification, the form of the subjects remains and the details are faded away.

The diminishing of details, emphasis on color and delicately-constructed expression allows the viewer to experience going back and forth between two worlds; a realistic world captured by photography and the imaginary world created by a human-being. Josef Schulz throws the question of the ‘reality/truth’ behind photography, but also overcomes the limitations in photography and creates a unique creative work of art.

These photographs are about the artist’s intuition to reduce the expectations we have and what there is in reality and these acts in return creates an ideal world. We are familiar with interpreting landscape, and when we see something unexpected, we realize there is something different. This small difference gives us the feeling similar to seeing a glimpse of a world created by a human-being. The dignity, magnificence and majesty of the Swiss Alps, the splendor of nature, the expansion of space and the opening out of vision is also about a bigger view of the world and a beautiful depiction of ideal natural beauty.

German Photographer Josef Schulz (1966 - )

Josef Schulz is an exceptional artist who has made a contribution in the German contemporary photography lineage. He was born in 1966, in Bischofsburg, Poland. In 1993 he enters Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where he takes in the historic German photographic methods of the 1920s, of Bernd Becher. In 1999, in the same institute he learns from Thomas Ruff, a renowned figure in German photography. In 2000 he is awarded second prize of Kodak und Large Format Ink jet Award, and third prize of artBahn-Wettbewerbes Award. In 2001 he receives the European Architectural Photography Prize, Vision in Architecture, and in 2002 he is awarded the Stiftung Kunst und Kultur des Landes NRW.

In 2005 Josef Schulz is named as one of the ‘reGeneration’ photographers. This specific project was set up by Musée de l’Elysée, Lausanne where the selection of 50 photographers was nominated as those who will become the most important figures in 2025. After being selected as one of the artists, Josef Schulz makes a strong impression in ‘reGeneration, 50 photographers of tomorrow’ exhibition. Soon afterwards he is selected to receive ‘Voies off’ prize in Rencontre internationale de la photographie, in Arles, a prize given to the best promising artist.

Josef Schulz develops his own photographic world. He has continuously held many exhibitions internationally, in Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria and all across Europe, and also in the United States. His works are in collection in Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe and Aarhus Art Museum. Josef Schulz’s works are also in Art Collection Deutsche Börse.

Josef Schulz’s solo exhibition ‘Real & Unreal’ was held in Gallery Lumière (2005. 12. 20 - 2006. 2. 5). His works were also shown in a group exhibition ‘Passion for Art, Mission for Money – contemporary collection’ by Gallery Lumière (2007. 9. 20 – 2007. 11. 4). In this group exhibition, a selection of his ‘Sachliches’ and ‘Form’ series was shown together with the first  work from the ‘Terraform’ series. Gallery Lumière proud to present Josef Schulz’s landscape works of the ‘Terraform’ Series, in Josef Schulz’s solo exhibition “Glory of Nature” (2009. 12. 11 – 2010. 2. 12).

"Glory of Nature " – Terraform Series

Through the use of a highly technical medium of digital editing process, the artist hides the characteristics in reality from the viewer. Josef Schulz is interested in this momentary confusion, the moment when the line between authenticity and construction becomes blurred, when it is no longer obvious which detail in the photograph is genuine and which one has been added digitally, in order to create the artist’s subjective ideal. In this manner Schulz gives his answer to the question about the existence of objectivity in a photographed image.

According to Josef Schulz “Photography isn’t just the moment of taking photos.” For Josef Schulz, the pressing of the shutter is not the last. He takes photographs in an analogue method, and then with digital technology he makes the subjects in his work to be more structural and abstract. This method itself is an artistic ‘act’ and it is only after going through this process that he believes his work can be regarded as a perfect piece of art work. In the artist’s photographic works, nothing of the documentary and informative role can be seen. In contrast he throws the question of the ‘reality/truth’ behind photography and he stresses the importance of the use of digital processing. The real images become unreal as it is passed through digital process. For the artist, this process is also a solution to how he can include his creativity, sentiments and philosophy. Josef Schulz questions the ‘reality’ in photographs and the method he uses in completing his works are the steps he takes to narrow the gap between the ‘photographic’ and the ‘painted’. 

This “Terraform” exhibition of Josef Schulz’s works portrays ideological images of ‘pure’ landscape. The accompanying photographs were taken at a variety of locations in the Alps. They show summits, rocks, lakes and valleys, areas of countryside devoid of people, irritatingly beautiful and of singularly ideal appearance. In order to show the most beautiful image of nature Josef Schulz uses a combination of photography and digital editing process, and through these medium he produces astonishing results. Through the extreme reduction of image details and content-related references, but also by emphasizing individual colors and contrasts, Josef Schulz provokes a heightening, a dramatization of the settings in a way normally only found in paintings. Space is even more expanded and the viewer can be immersed in the particular contemporary art work with a wider perspective. In this series of works the viewer experiences a fascinating sounding out of the border between the photographic 'truth' and created ‘reality’.  Furthermore, this particular technical approach the artist takes results in displaying the artist’s subjective ideas on nature.

* Please make sure that all images indicate copyright.
The proper form would be ⓒ Josef Schulz