Andreas Gursky is a German photographer who was born in Leipzig in 1955.He was trained for two years at the Folkwangschule (Folkwang School), one of the best for photography, especially photojournalists. He also studied in the early 1980s at the Staatliche Kunstakademie (State Art Academy) in Düsseldorf. While studying here he was mentored by Bernd and Hilla Becher who’s works in the Conceptual and Minimal art movements were well known. Gursky is now well known for his large scale photographs, landscape colour photographs and his style that creates high point of view.
When looking at his photograph Avenue of the Americans, it was easy to see that the photograph was of a city building’s lights. But at the same time it was confusing because you could tell that there were more than one photo in that single frame. After reading the caption below the photo it tells you that he overlapped two different city building photos to create the work of art. In this photo you can also see that the photo was taken from a higher vantage point allowing him to show lots of repetition in the photo which is common in many of his works. With this high vantage point he shoots, repetition is automatically created because when he takes his photos from far away it allows repetition to be displayed. This repetition is also shown in the value of the photo. I like how there is such high contrast between the buildings lights and the darkness that surround them. These extreme opposites create great texture and allow the light in the photo to really pop out.
aweissman18 