UNVERZART, Olaf - Don't fade to grey

Background information, content

"Olaf UNVERZART creates images that raise subtle, sometimes melancholic questions. His coarse-grained black-and-white photographs, taken with analog cameras, associate on the one hand a transience, but at the same time an openness that affects the narration. His motifs suggest, they avoid an explanatory representation. Influenced by great names from the history of photography such as Robert FRANK, Garry WINOGRAND or Anders PETERSEN, Olaf UNVERZART strolls through the world as an observer, but always ready to use his medium as a mirror of himself. 'Don't Fade To Grey' just doesn't stay stuck in the gray, but points with the black and white tones to the extremes of life that resonate every moment. U.'s way of reading and recording tracks brings this banal realization to mind again and again. Working with award-winning book designer Andreas Töpfer, Unverzart conceives of his publications as a statement and medium to archive his work in book form while keeping it alive." (© soda)

In the press

"Olaf UNVERZART has never been one to just point and shoot. The photographer became known for images that at first glance looked as if they had been taken by chance, in passing. But if you look a second longer, you realize that each one of these photos tells a story. In his award-winning photo series Deutsche Szenen (German Scenes), U. spent a year portraying the Federal Republic for ZEITmagazin. His pictures show bottle banks, a walker with his dachshund, the shop window of a sex store. U. does not describe himself as a travel photographer, but takes the viewer on a journey of thought each time. In his illustrated book 'Don't fade to grey' Olaf UNVERZART has intensified the reduction of his work even more and concentrated entirely on black and white photography. His pictures, taken with an analog camera, have something grainy about them, sometimes seeming like stills from a black-and-white film. The people in them rarely turn toward the viewer. They are absorbed in themselves, like this woman with the tattooed butterfly, the child on the ferry, or the shadows of which we can only guess to whom they belong. Their story belongs to our imagination alone." (© zeit-online)

About the German photographer Olaf UNVERZART

Photo books by Olaf UNVERZART