Andreas Gursky

Basic Information and Photograph Analysis

Andreas Gursky is a German photographer who was born in 1955. Gursky uses photography to capture landscapes, people, industries and architecture in great detail which creates photos with a high depth of field and clarity. He uses an elevated perspective on a large scale to show individual detail such as items in a supermarket or windows on a large building. Gursky's work is highly influenced by his schooling under photographers Bernd and Hilla Becher.

Centre Georges Pompidou, Andreas Gursky

Through digital manipulation, Gursky heightens the scale, detail and colour within the composition of his photographs and he holds the world record for the highest priced photograph in 2011 which was his photo from the series entitled "Rhein". 

Gursky first exhibited his work in 1985 in Germany and has proceeded to do exhibit his work throughout Europe since then. He shares a studio with fellow photographers Laurenz Berges, Thomas Ruff and Axel Hutte in Germany and has become a renowned photographer whose work can sell for millions of dollars in auction. 

Rhein II, Andreas Gursky 1999

This photograph from the series of photos entitled "Rhein" sold in auction for $4.3million. This photograph breaks the rules of photography due to the fact that the composition is split into halves rather than the conventional thirds that is generally used within photography. It is somewhat resemblant of a contemporary fine art painting because of the sectioning of colours and the use of completely straight lines which wouldn't usually be found in unedited photos. There isn't anything particularly aesthetically pleasing about this piece as there isn't very much there in terms of composition. This piece aims to make the viewer question whether it is fine art or reality due to the fact that it isn't an actual place and it has been edited to make the lines as straight as possible and everything except the sky has been removed from the background to make it more symmetrical. 

99 cent, Andreas Gursky 2001

This photo is part of the 99 cent II diptychon and sold in auction for $3.3million. This photograph uses a wide range of colour and has a high depth of field which is evident by the amount of detail in the items that are stacked on the shelves in the photo. The composition has more interest and is more aesthetically appealing as it has a wider variety of colours that contrast and compliment each other to draw in the person viewing it. The straight lines and sectioning within the composition are typical features of Gursky's work which is what makes his photos so identifiable. The composition of this photo is also broken up slightly by the people who are in the photograph browsing the shelves. 

My Gursky Photos

 As an experiment, I decided to emulate Gursky's work. I went outside to the Lowe School playground and took photos of places that had plenty of lines and little going on in them so that they would look more like Gursky photos. I then imported them into photoshop and began to edit them by using the warp tool in order to create straighter lines and therefore more Gursky-esque. 

Because some of Gursky's photos have a lot of colour, I also used the saturation tool to make the colours stand out more, therefore creating more visual interest within the composition and making them aesthetically pleasing. I changed the contrast too so that the colours were brought out more and the details were more noticeable, just like Gursky's photos. 

For the emulation on the left, I cloned parts of the sky and lined them up so that the houses in the background weren't noticeable. I also cloned part of the roof in the background to cover parts of the hedge that were sticking up which made it look more symmetrical. I then cloned other elements like the grass and the door and placed them so that the image was more like a gursky photo than my own.