Artmedia Gallery is proud to present Wanderlust. Photographs by Stephan Göttlicher, an exploration of landscape simultaneously engaged in reviewing the representational agenda of this genre in modern photography and connected with the sensibility that has fed the longtime tradition of German pictorial landscape.

The exhibition includes large-format prints of images taken by Göttlicher with a damaged vintage camera, a 1983 Fujica GS 645, inside the forests of Trentino-Alto Adige, in northern Italy, and the Graubünden region, in eastern Switzerland, during the summer of 2015. The camera, with its single 75 mm lens, was purchased online by the author and brought to his hands with several holes in the fabric of the bellows. Then,  knowing that light was falling into the camera, he decided to use creatively the so-called fog effect the light might produce on the exposure. He photographed in dark areas and manipulated the film during the shooting process with deliberate overexposure and indispensable speed, quite spontaneously, without enough time for an accurate pre-framing. In a few words, he operated far of purist technicalities and unable to control the making-process of his pictures —indifferent to required conditions for making landscapes in modern photography—but within the precise borders of analog photography. Besides, he was sure about the atmospherical appearance and sensitive mood his photographs could have as a result of his strategy. 

The title of the exhibition uses a word that comes from the German language to describing the compulsion to travel about or rove without a definite destination. Indeed, Göttlicher wandered into the forest pursuing the irregular course the light traced along with, before and forward him while he was making pictures close to his subjects. In spite of their differences, these images are connected with German landscape representations, from Romantic painting to Pictorial photography around 1900, at least in two features: just the blurred, hazy lighting that frequently hangs over them and the emotional dimension they evoke.

About the artist

This is the first Miami show for the German-born photographer Stephan Göttlicher, who moved to this city in 2009. Raised in Germany and Brazil, Göttlicher is a professional photographer who worked in Hamburg and Berlin for several years. Prior to taking up photography, he traveled the world as a classical ballet dancer.

About the curator

José Antonio Navarrete has developed an extended international career as a curator, researcher, and critic of visual arts and culture. His lengthy bibliography focuses on topics of modern and contemporary art, with emphasis on how media technology has affected and transformed art practices. During this decade, he has also exhibited his artistic work.

About the gallery

Artmedia Gallery was founded in 2012. With a location in Wynwood Art District, Miami, Florida, the gallery has the mission to explore the vast possibilities of the expanded notion of art through media technology, with photography and video as its core interest.