Library Book - Eli Yudt

Andreas Gefeller is a german photographer that was born in Dusseldorf, Germany. Andreas Gefeller studied visual communications and photography for eight years at University of Essen in northern germany. After graduating in the year two thousand Andreas Gefeller began publishing photography books. Over the years Andreas Gefeller published a number of photo books, the first one of which I picked up in the library called Soma. In Soma Gefeller captures an interesting mix of empty hotel complexes, vacant balconies, pools without any swimmers in their water, and even a construction zone. The lack of people in the landscapes Andreas Gefeller photographed is odd because typically those places are full of people. At first glance the lighting seems off and almost retouched digitally. A deeper look at the dark skies in the photographs means that they were taken at night, which explains the lack of people in Andreas Gefeller’s pieces. Photographing at night could lead to some obvious lighting issues, but Andreas Gefeller overcame this by using very long shutter speeds, from several seconds and even up to ten minutes! Evidence of the long shutter speed can be seen in the leaves of the trees in the photograph posted below, they blew in the wind while the shutter was open which led to a blurring effect. I find it amazing that a photograph taken in almost complete darkness can have as many rich and vibrant colors as Andreas Gefeller’s work does. It creates an interesting scene when taking pictures the way Andreas Gefeller does; the landscape itself is clearly visible as if it was taken in broad daylight, yet the sky is in complete darkness. The scenes Andreas Gefeller captured were simply too large for any flash or light to illuminate, so the extremely slow shutter speeds were the only way to light up the picture. This style of Photography is the reason of the strange lighting that was created. This lighting makes the photographs look almost fake in a way, or at least edited digitally. However all of the pictures were not altered, they were taken on an analog camera. Her work is unique. Andreas Gefeller’s innovative way to light up the night led to her book Soma and herself receiving many awards in the photography community like the Reinhart Wolf Prize, European Architectural Photography Award,  Peter Keetmann Award for Industrial Photography, and Art Director's Club for concept and design.