Thomas Heinser blickwinkel
Shortly after the first photograph was taken in 1858, French photographer Nadar took the first
aerial photograph using a hot air balloon and portable darkroom. The car below the balloon was used as a darkroom to develop the photograph-- it was extremely dangerous work. But marked the human interest in presenting images of our world from above it’s surface.
George Lawrence captured some of the earliest and most recognizable images of aerial photography. His ingenuity and determination made aerial photography possible. His Captive Airship was a camera he created from scratch measuring nearly 5 feet in height. To take a picture, the camera’s spring operated shutter had to be triggered remotely from the ground. The process created 18 x 48-inch negatives that were taken from heights up to 2,000 feet. The camera was suspended in air by a team of kites that were often launched from the deck of a boat. He stabilized his enormous air born camera with three fifteen-foot-long bamboo poles attached to its sides (which he retouched out of the corners of his pictures). This famous photograph of San Francisco was shot a few weeks following the April 1906 earthquake.
blickwinkel In Thomas Heinser’s native German Blickwinkel means Point of View. For this body of work the photographer uses this term to describe both his sensiblity and the vantage point from which he captures his remarkable imagery. The project is a series of eighteen large-scale, aerial photographs. As the title suggests, these aerial views of our world persuade us to reflect more intently on the familiar. He creates lush landscape photographs from great heights. The photos are shot around the world, and are both beautiful and unnerving. His work is, by design, intended to create fresh vantage point with which to view our environment. His disorienting photographs depict roads, bridges, built and natural landscapes as abstract, flattened and painterly visions of world. Heinser presents us with the beauty of the visual patterns formed by the intersection of natural and constructed environments. Heinser is known for his aerial work or as he refers to them “Überblicks”. His work investigates built environments and urban landscapes carved out of natural space. His photography often has a stark and graphic stillness that reflects his particular way of seeing and organizing the image. He searches for an honest, organized and uncomplicated viewpoint, “I do not need to alter the reality if I can find and capture it”. “Blickwinkel” is Heinser’s second exhibition at Gallery 16. While the photographer is often engaged in producing multiple, ongoing bodies of work of various subject matter, aerial photography has been a leading fixture in his work for more than six years, with “Überblick” exhibited at Gallery 16 in 2011. Thomas Heinser was raised in Dinslaken, Germany, and received his degree in Communication Arts from the FH School for Communications Design in Düsseldorf. He also attended classes at Kunstakademie Düsseldorf where Joseph Beuys was a professor. Thomas Heinser lives and works in the San Francisco Bay area.
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1. Napa_823, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
2. Runway_005, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
3. Runway_295, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
4. Highway 37_774, 2013 Archival pigment print 38” x 50” 1/10 $4,500.00
5. Runway_936, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
6. Runway_317, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00.
7. Highway 37_796, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
8. Lippe_019,2013 Archival pigment print 38” x 50” 1/10 $4,500.00
9. Runway_056, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
10. West Marin_501, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
11. West Marin_636, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
12. Runway_812, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
13. North Rhein West Falia_981, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
14. SFO_145, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
15. SF Bay_017, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
16. West Marin_207, 2013 Archival pigment print 40” x 40” 1/10 $4,000.00
Gallery 16 Editions Gallery 16 Editions was founded by artist Griff Williams in 1993 to accompany the contemporary exhibition program. Since 1993 Gallery 16 Editions has published over 800 prints, artist books, and multiples with artists including Ari Marcopoulos, Jim Goldberg, Colter Jacobsen, Bill Berkson, Harrell Fletcher, Lynn Hershman, Amy Franceschini, Adam Lowe, William Kentridge, Tucker Nichols, Rebeca Bollinger, Libby Black, Deborah Oropallo, Jim Isermann, bell hooks, Ann Chamberlain, Elliot Anderson, Carol Selter, Rebeca Bollinger, Rex Ray, Margaret Kilgallen and Rudy VanderLans.
Thomas Heinser’s work is available through Gallery 16. Gallery 16 is located at 501 Third Street, San Francisco, CA 94107. Inquiries may contact Griff Williams at 415-626-7495. All images Š Thomas Heinser gallery16.com