Andreas Schmidt

Andreas Schmidt is a German-born, London based photographer/artist whose work has been exhibited and published internationally. In 2005 German fine art and photography book publisher Hatje Cantz published his first hard-back monograph entitled “Las Vegas” to international critical acclaim. Described by J.G. Ballard as "the poet of the hotel corridor", his second book, 'The City' (2009), presents a photographic over-view of the architecture of London’s financial centre. He was a founding member of ABC, Artists' Books Cooperative and has self-published numerous books in an ongoing series. https://abcoop.wordpress.com/ "The photographs of The City in Andreas Schmidt’s eponymous series, although focussing on its architecture, is by no means merely a pictorial document. Schmidt is offering us much more than that, there are layers of meaning laid bare by these images that deserve careful contemplation and analysis. We could easily, in viewing these images be blinded by their striking aesthetic qualities and although this is not a contingent feature of his work, there is no denying that many of his images have an inherent beauty. To understand Schmidt’s purpose, his motivation for creating these particular images, however, we must ask questions of them. The viewpoints, the juxtapositions of images, their qualities of light, the choice of subjects, their composition and balance are by no means driven by aesthetic concerns, neither are they arbitrary. They are photographs which often question the role of photography and subsequently the role of the viewer of those photographs of architecture which often question the role of architecture." Extract from 'The Spectacle of Illusion: The City', by Roy Exley, Hatje Cantz Publishers 2009 “In Schmidt’s pictures, Las Vegas seems really familiar yet at the same time really alien. That is due to the fact that he stops and opens his eyes in places in which nobody else slows their pace. In the parking garage. In the hotel lobby. Beneath the artificial sky. This ambivalence also relies on the fact that Schmidt does not allow himself to become a slave to one photographic method. He is dogmatic when it comes to people: he shows a city that is almost empty, in order to focus completely on spaces, light, architecture. In the steps that follow, however, he reacts by continually setting new accents, because the exploding Vegas that is constantly reinventing itself can only be portrayed with the greatest amount of flexibility. Strict cataloging, heady enthusiasm for light, ironic commentary on architainment—Schmidt draws all these registers. His work hints at the soberness of the New Topographics, the humor of New Color, the clever objectivity of newer German photo art: with this strategic flexibility Schmidt avoids seeing the city simply as proof of a theory, a fear, a delusion.” Extract from 'Love. Risk. Wall-to-Wall Carpets', by Christoph Ribbat, Hatje Cantz publishers, 2005