Daniel Fuchs (born 1966 in Alzenau) and Geo Fuchs (born 1969 in Frankfurt am Main) are an artist couple[1] who are known for their conceptual photography series in numerous international exhibitions.[2]
Artistic biography
In 1992, Daniel and Geo Fuchs started[3] their common photographic work. From the beginning, they focused on producing series of photographs with a strong conceptual approach.
The prerequisite for their work is an intense analysis of their chosen subject; the production of a series usually takes several months or even years of research, collecting of material, image selection, and test runs.
From an historical art perspective, their oeuvre belongs to concept art; objectivity, staging, and a wealth of detail.
In the beginning, until about 1996, the artist duo's interest was concentrated on topics like ‘Homelessness’, ’Trans-Sexuality’ and ‘Mental Illness’.[4][5]
Until the year 2008, Daniel and Geo Fuchs mainly worked with large format camera and tripod, a relatively slow, time-consuming process.
In 2009, with the entry of new media, the artist duo began to experiment with digital techniques.
Concept and aesthetics
Daniel and Geo Fuchs's photographs have in common, that they fabricate on first view a feel of "yes – I got it" or "yeah that's obvious". But intuitively you're pushed to take a closer look, check out the details and arrangements, and all the sudden you ask yourself, what in the moment, while the image was taken, actually existed and what not. Thereby it doesn't matter, whether it is about an arrangement of photographed miniatures like in the Toy Giants series[6] or a mountain range like in Nature and Destruction.
Independent, whether the images were produced in nature, in an archive or a studio, the viewer will realize, that reality and fiction must have turned into one – how little or how much depends on the concept of the specific work series. Ambiguity is a central component in the work of Daniel & Geo Fuchs and exists in multiple regards. The subtle pretense of something, what can’t be real and if at all, only under different circumstances is one of them. Another one is the balancing act between the extremes – there is hardly a work series, which does not live of antagonists, like – death and esthetics, beauty and destruction, perfectionism and decay. Examples are the series Forces and Nature and Destruction.[7]
Often one work phase of Daniel & Geo Fuchs mounts already into the next one, as theme and project cycles overlap or run parallel.
Due to their large interest in the environment, Daniel & Geo Fuchs developed a strong affinity for that, what first needs to be discovered, is still hidden in the dark or even secret and subsequently for the fascinating world of collections and archives. Visual proofs are the series Conserving, Toy Giants, and STASI – Secret Rooms.
Work series
Since the beginning of their international career until now,[3] Daniel & Geo Fuchs’ œuvre can be ordered into seven large projects: Conserving (1998), Famous Eyes (2000), STASI – Secret Rooms (2006), Toy Giants (2006), Forces (2010), Nature and Destruction and – the latest project – The Halva Project (since 2014).[8]
The dead bodies, photographed for the ‘Conserving’ series,[9] have in common that all of them were inserted in formalin to achieve the best possible and durable conservation. Some of them have already existed for several hundred years. In a time when photography did not exist, as a medium ‘to freeze/keep the moment” and provide a visual memory, this process was the alternative and in a certain sense an own form/variety of sculpture became established, which Daniel and Geo Fuchs have emulated for their project. The themes of life, death, aesthetics and uneasiness touch each other in a similar way to the series Conserving, which is organized in three topics – fish, animals, humans.
The fascination, created by the photographs of these preserved creatures, inspired the Berlin band Rammstein to cooperate with Daniel and Geo Fuchs. The artist duo developed the main art concept for the band's third album, Mutter (Mother), 2001, which included the general aesthetic appeal of all singles released and the cover of the ‘Mutter’ Album, which stirred up a controversial discussion in public media.[10] The cover shows a baby that died at birth almost 200 years ago. The baby is conserved in alcohol and was photographed by Daniel Fuchs and Geo Fuchs for their book "Conserving". The promotional photos were also shot by Daniel and Geo Fuchs. All pictures are inspired by original photos in their book "Conserving".
The photography series ‘Toy Giants[12] established Daniel and Geo Fuchs popularity on a broader level[13] within the international audience/public. The initial spark was their connection with the collector Selim Varol,[14] who owns one of the largest toy and street art collections in the world. For ‘Toy Giants’ the artist duo established relations between toy figures of all genres like, Batman, Superman, Godzilla, Kill Bill[15] and many others and created with the images a new narrative of their stories.
The miniature sized, protagonists of ‘Toy Giants’, were photographed with a large format camera, and presented in exhibitions[16] in the scale of real existing people, which invites the viewer to participate in an interaction of staging and reality.
‘STASI – Secret Rooms’[17] demanded a lot of time for research and stressful, extensive paperwork, to gain access to buildings and archives,[18] which were generally closed to the public.[19]
For this project, Daniel and Geo Fuchs photographed rooms representing the former power/ authority of the East Germany government: wiretapped rooms, locations of physical violence, torture, and psycho-terror – and yet it is not a documentary in the classical sense. The photographed view of a not completely closed door, raddled office furniture or a crooked hung portrait of Erich Honecker on the wall, is an artistic visualization of the evidence that the regime was an ailing system long before the fall of the Wall. The images were taken 15 years after the fall of the wall, in rooms, which Daniel and Geo Fuchs still found in their initial condition. In compliance with the status-quo, the artists photographed solely during daylight. The only style element for each picture is the same calculated central point, which seems to drag the viewer into the room.
‘Forces’[20] is a project, which concentrates on military and warfare. For this series, Daniel and Geo Fuchs used their sober and distant point of view to put single objects like jets, weapons, grenades, and projectiles in the center of their attention – in front of their camera. In the artistic interpretation of Daniel and Geo Fuchs a hand grenade evolves, separated from its original destructive purpose, into an object of extraordinary fascination and aesthetics, a T-mine turns into a stylish beauty.
Aesthetics and destruction are also the subject in the work series ‘Nature and Destruction’.
Nature as Daniel and Geo Fuchs see it, is beauty, offering resources and energy – and at the same time confrontation with the destruction of nature caused by the impact of humankind. In the series “Explosions’[21] as part of “Nature and Destruction’, this contradiction finds its culmination. The fascination about the breathtaking force of a blasting power, which might be the Big Bang, where all life originates from, blends with the uneasiness about the destruction, which an explosion causes that is triggered by man. Questions about parallels in contemporary, political events are subliminally posed.
The latest project of Daniel and Geo Fuchs – labeled by the artists as a "matter of the heart/labor of love" – is the "Halva Art Project". Halva is the name of a female Russian toy terrier, that has lived since October 2014 with the pair.
The project started with an oil portrait, which the painter Gertrud Fuchs, Daniels mother, painted based on a photo of Halva. Unaware of what it could turn into, the artist couple published a photo of the oil portrait on the social media platform ‘Facebook’. Excited that Daniel and Geo Fuchs had accommodated a little dog, many befriended artists were inspired by the photograph and based on it their own portrayals of Halva. This led Daniel and Geo Fuchs to the idea that artists of any genre create an artistic interpretation of little Halva.[citation needed] To realize the project the duo started, in 2015, traveling to shootings with Halva, often in their motor home.
During their, to date, not finished journey, Halva already has been photographed by Anton Corbijn, Michael Wesely, Alfred Steffen and Olaf Heine.
In the development of this project are parallels to the journeys of Bernd and Hilla Becher in their VW bus, as well as to the travel diary of John Steinbeck "The Journey with Charley: In search of America's", who in 1960 undertook a three months journey through the USA with his already 10 year old French poodle Charley in a specially designed pickup camper, to revisit and rediscover the country he had been raised in and described in his novels.
Yet different to John Steinbeck is, that in Daniel and Geo Fuchs's project, the dog is not just company, but the purpose for the journey. The goal is always to meet somewhere with renowned representatives of the art world, who create an artwork, which visualizes the Russian toy terrier female dog Halva. The idea, as well as realization, turned this project into something unique in the art world, as Halva will be the first dog, which at an uncertainly dated project end, has been photographed, painted, and drawn by a huge number of artists.
Exhibition conditions
Already in the production process of their photography series, Daniel and Geo Fuchs consider the respective form of the presentation in the exhibition room. An always recurring feature is the large size/format which admittedly represents a formal attribute, but is not separated from the content. The large size offers the viewer the chance to pay attention to the richness in detail of each single work. The toys in ‘Toy Giants’, fascinates because the enlarged focus is driven on components, which are often neglected or even ignored. Traces of usage like scratches or not accurately executed painting during production, reveal the individual story, which each serial manufactured product might offer.
In reference to the style of the formalize preserved body, usually kept in a glass container, the photographs of the ‘Conserving’ series[22] are concealed as Cibachrome prints behind 3/5’’[23] inch thick acrylic glass with polished edges, which as a desired effect suggests the floating of a medical preserved specimen in liquid.
