Michael Wesely (born 1963 in Munich) is a German

art photographer Fine-art photography is photography created in line with the vision of the photographer as artist, using photography as a medium for creative expression. The goal of fine-art photography is to express an idea, a message, or an emotion. This stand ...

who is best known for his photos of cities, buildings, landscapes, and still lives of flowers taken with a special ultra-long exposure technique. Michael Wesely lives and works in Berlin.

Life

From 1986 to 1988, Michael Wesely attended the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie at Munich, before taking up studies at the

Munich Academy of Fine Arts The Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (, also known as Munich Academy) is one of the oldest and most significant art academies in Germany. It is located in the Maxvorstadt district of Munich, in Bavaria, Germany. In the second half of the 19th centur ...

with Heribert Sturm and James Reineking.

Works

Wesely employed a self-made special

pinhole camera A pinhole camera is a simple camera without a lens but with a tiny aperture (the so-called ''Pinhole (optics), pinhole'')—effectively a light-proof box with a small hole in one side. Light from a scene passes through the aperture and projects a ...

for photographing scenes of profound and quick development such as the reconstruction of Berlin

Potsdamer Platz Potsdamer Platz (, ''Potsdam Square'') is a public square and traffic intersection in the center of Berlin, Germany, lying about south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag building, Reichstag (Bundestag, German Parliament Building), and ...

in the years after the fall of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

in the late 1990s. In contrast, he later made pictures of still

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

and American landscapes showing wide fields and the sky above. During the reconstruction of New York

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

(MoMA), Wesely took photos recording the change in architecture. This was called the Open Shutter project, shown at the MoMA in 2004. Together with Lina Kim, he later photographed the Brazilian capital Brasília.

Reception

Wesely's works deal with the subject of time and the change that takes place over time. Due to the extremely long exposure and the special

bulb In botany, a bulb is a short underground stem with fleshy leaves or leaf basesBell, A.D. 1997. ''Plant form: an illustrated guide to flowering plant morphology''. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K. that function as food storage organs duri ...

he uses, those elements that move the least dominate his images, while those moving will later be seen as transparent figures or the outlines of newly erect buildings overlapping. The pictures "reveal the passage of time by showing the changing skyline, the skeletons of cranes. the rise of new buildings, and the disappearance of others. Beams of sunlight, the residue of the ever-changing positions (tithe earth and sun, are also evident, like a palimpsest of seasons". Everything that ever happened on the scene during exposure (during weeks, months, or even up to twoRachel Somerstein
"Le Mois De La Photo a Montreal: September 5 – October 5, 2013"
. Afterimage 41, no. 4. 2014. or three years) will be seen in one single picture.Guilherme Wisnik:
Michael Wesely. Langzeitbelichtung und die trübe Dimension der kontemporären Stadt
''. Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie. 2010. Retrieved on 20 April 2014. Wesely's photographs have been described as a metaphor on the change of Berlin after 1989 because "at once strikingly energetic and ghostly and uninhabited. This formal paradox aptly describes Berlin, which had only been unified for ten years at the time the images were taken. In that way, the photographs offer a larger commentary on time's passage."

Scholarships

* 1995: Scholarship by the

German Academic Exchange Service The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD; ), founded in 1925, is a joint organization of German universities and student bodies to foster their international relations. Since 1 January 2020, the president has been Joybrato Mukherjee. Organisa ...

DAAD for the Netherlands * 1996: Work scholarship of the Stiftung Kunstfonds at Bonn * 1999: Scholarship for United States by the Free State of Bavaria

Selected publications

* Vereinte Versicherung AG (ed.): ''Michael Wesely, American landscape''. Storms. Munich. 2000. * Galerie Fahnemann. Autor Philippe van Cauteren (eds.): ''Ostdeutschland = East Germany''. König. Köln. 2004. * ''Time works''. Schirmer Mosel. Munich. 2010. * Hubertus von Amelunxen, Ludwig Seyfarth, Dorothee von Windheim: ''Michael Wesely Portraits 1988–2013''. Distanz. Berlin. 2013.

References

External links

*
Michael Wesely's personal website

CASANOVA Gallery

Michael Wesely
artnet.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Wesely, Michael 1963 births Living people Photographers from Munich