Wolfgang Tillmans

For artist Wolfgang Tillmans, portraiture is a collaborative process between photographer and accomplice. While Tillmans' photographs are often referred to as casual, they are actually the result of a carefully constructed process of engagement with his models. Each sitter, be they a world-famous rock star or a family member, issues forth both vulnerability and dignity. Presented here are a selection of some of the best of these portraits, taken between 1988 to 2001, and chosen by Tillmans himself. Subjects include filmmaker John Waters, architect Rem Koolhaas, musicians Moby and Michael Stipe, actresses Irm Hermann and Chloe Sevigny, as well as the artist's family and friends. As a photographer, the German-born Tillmans is, in Charles Baudlaire's famous phrase, a "painter of modern life." His infinitely controlled, casual-looking pictures of people, pets, fashion models, cast-off clothes, and rock bands capture a floating, fleeting world, doomed to pass, but for us eternal. His medium is unimportant. He could be a painter or a filmmaker. Really he is a novelist who tells us tales of what it is like to be alive right here, right now, and this feels wonderful. --Jerry Saltz, "The Village Voice" Tillmans is among the most potent and provocative portraitists of our time. --Carlo McCormick, artnet.com
Essay by Wolfgang Tillmans.
9.25 x 12 in.
68 color illustrations