Background information, content
"'Theorea' - a variation of the Greek word for seeing, perceiving, recognizing - is the title of a publication by Axel HÜTTE that accompanied a retrospective of his photographic works from 1994 to 1996 organized by the Fotomuseum in Winterthur. Since the early days of the photographer, who was born in Essen in 1951, his interest has been in landscape photography - a broad subject, but in his interpretation an almost programmatic confrontation of city and country. For between the poles of pure nature pieces - which include his mist-shrouded mountain peaks or views of vast plains - and oppressive, literally hopeless street scenes, Axel HÜTTE moves again and again in the undecided gray areas of the neither-nor. His motifs are industrial areas on the outskirts of cities, company premises in the green, Tuscan cultural landscape, seen through the concrete pillars of a commercial building. People are absent from these images, the beauty of nature does not appear unbroken, nor do the sights of the European metropolises in which he has photographed." (slightly adapted text, © Schirmer / Mosel Verlag, 1996)
Two texts by Urs Stahel, 'Ein Ein-Sehen haben' / 'L'Entendement Du Regard', and by Hans Irrek, 'Nacht und Nebel. Phenomena of Dissolution' / 'Nuit et Brouillard. Phénomènes de la Dissolution', in German and in French translation complete the catalog volume designed by Trix WETTER.