Wim Wenders

Pictures from the Surface of the Earth

Wim Wenders (b. 1945) is one of the most important figures to emerge from the New German Cinema period of the 1970s. Alongside directing atmospheric auteur films the artist works with the medium of photography. This exhibition brings together a selection of works from the long-running project Pictures from the Surface of the Earth which began in the early 1980s and continued for the next twenty years.

Working with Plaubel Makina and Fuji panoramic cameras, Wenders produces large-format prints which envelope the viewer, engulfing their field of vision. Each image captures a world that has been created or destroyed by nature and mankind alike. The organic landscapes and urban environments that the artist has encountered while on his nomadic and restless journey across the globe are thrown into focus. Travelling through Germany, Australia, America, Cuba, Israel and Japan, his fascinated gaze draws out the essence of a moment, place or space. Paradoxically, what often holds powerful presence within each photograph is the notion of disappearance. The line between cityscape and ‘desertscape’ becomes blurred as desolate views and inanimate objects suggest latent narratives — the stories of people who were once there.

Each photographic frame is precisely defined by Wenders so as to minimise any need for manipulation to the film negative. Colour, composition and form are in perfect harmony at the moment the shutter closes. The artist sees the contemporary digitization of photography as damaging the ‘reality’ represented in images. Accordingly, he has articulated the importance that the subjective angle or viewpoint has for him. As such, this series is both a portrait of the world as the photographer has encountered it, and a portrait of the photographer himself, as reflected in his view of the world.

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