Portrait nominee

Josef Dreisörner’s analogue black and white photographs allow him to capture far more than any color photograph – above all the human face – with strong authenticity. His Klimsch Unikat Close-up Portraits create unique, visually and psychologically precise insights into the human face – an aesthetic that initially alienates the viewer, but is precisely intended in the consistency of its depiction. These human faces are unadorned, direct and truthful. Josef Dreisörner’s portraits are a consistent alternative to the arbitrary images of people that have been passed through countless filters and presets, produced and shared millions of times a day, in which every mistake has been corrected and every desired aesthetic result has been produced retrospectively.

Klimsch Reproduction Camera; Apo-Ronar 1:9 f=600mm; Direct exposure on 20x24 inch B+W Positive Photo-Paper

Josef Dreisörner (born 1967)
Living in Munich, Germany
Mediadesigner, Photo Artist

When encountering the works of Josef Dreisörner, one discovers an artistic position in which conceptual creativity is combined with craftsmanship. Just as the act of creating a picture is an active process, so is the process that his pictures set in motion in the eye of the beholder. Seeing goes beyond simple representational recognition to become a productive process of perception. The themes of his works are immediately recognizable and immediately understandable even without a legend, as his pictures tell a clear story that is open to interpretation.

His KLIMSCH UNIKAT portrait shots yield perspectives of the human visage with downright surgical precision. In most of his still lifes, his concern as an artist is to draw the viewer's attention to socially relevant issues. Such pictorial statements are mainly realized by so-called large format cameras. Of particular note is the Klimsch Praktika reproduction / process camera built in 1957 with a film format of up to 50×60 cm (20×24 Inch). Photographs are taken analogue on black-and-white film or with direct exposure on black-and-white positive photo paper. The captures on film are realized by means of the Palladium /Platinum Print