Praise of the Surfaces

Camera photography of colored wrapping paper in the primary colors blue, green, yellow, red on 13 x 18 color-negative film.  C-prints formatted 90 x 80cm and 119 x 84cm.  The surfaces show hardly perceptible, but “dramatic” traces of handling and use: scratches, dents and reflections.  

This topic also plays with the details of the seemingly accidental slippage of the camera that occurs between settings and photography. The picture includes the small the photographic mistakes of the camera against the will of the perfect photographer.

A special roll is played out between two photo pairs, Green Green (each 119 x 90cm) and Red Red (each 119 x 84cm).  The first photo pair presents the difference between two slightly contrasting image details. The second photo pair presents digital imitations of analogue photos of the red surfaces.  The laboratory had to simulate an identical red color by selecting the appropriate colors of light without the associated negative.  The series title was inspired by a conversation with Vilém Flusser, who presented an outlined book of the same topic while visiting Bielefeld in 1984.  It was posthumously released in 1993 under the title “Praise of Superficiality or: The Abstraction Game” from Bollmann Publishers, Bensheim. 

First publication: Exhibition Gottfried Jäger und Markus Jäger: Light and Time, Photography in the generative context, Photogalerie Bild, Baden, Schweiz, 1991. Brochure; Exhibition and catalogue position of the color photography II, The Abstraction, Art and Amedia Center of Adlershof, Berlin, 2000, Catalogue p. 14, 15.