More Information
Author Ruud van Empel
Pages 32
Signed No
Publisher TZR Galerie für Bildende Kunst
Publishing date 2005
Publishing place Bochum, Germany
Language Dutch, English
Edition First edition
Binding Softcover
Book condition Like New
Condition description Minor shelf wear.
Dimensions (cm hxb) 24 x 17
Ruud van Empel has been engaged in creating photographic collages since the 1980s, initially for posters and television leaders and later primarily as autonomous work. His most recent series, Study in Green, originated in the period 2003-2004 and consists of 18 photographic works. They give an excellent indication of how well Van Empel has developed in the past twenty years and how he has become an expert in using the computer as an artistic medium. ‘Sketching, cutting and pasting’, which at the outset formed such a fundamental part of the generation of his pictures, is now exclusively done by digital means. In contrast to the traditional collage techniques, these digital means allow him to compile every composition, every detail and every colour – in his latest photographic series Van Empel proves to be a first-rate colourist – and to disguise all artistic interventions. As such, his working method tends toward painting, although the final results bear all the physical features of photography. The images find their mysterious, occasionally oppressive power here, in the force field that Van Empel consistently manages to create between perfection and imperfection, reality and illusion. In his most recent photographic work, he even appears to conjure up worlds in which illusionism is transformed into reality. They transfix the viewer’s attention in the areas that are presented en focus and allow it to meander along imagery whose function is to foster feelings of discomfort. Van Empel’s fairytale woods are less innocent that they would seem to be at first sight. They appeal to sentiments and instincts that we would perhaps prefer to keep hidden deep down in our own nature. Van Empel stimulates us to feel them by enticing us into his world, where he disarms us before confronting us with what lies concealed behind the apparently naïve beauty, and behind our own reflection. In doing so, he reveals truths that transcend every topicality.

Dutch photographers

Photo Work Study in Green

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Study in Green, magical photographic study by Ruud van Empel Text by Han Steenbruggen, design by Ruud van Empel.
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