Can photographs have timeless aesthetics? Looking at the works of Thomas Wunsch one is tempted to spontaneously answer this question positively. Certainly this is one of the reasons why the legendary record label ECM from Munich, currently honoured with an exhibition at the Haus der Kunst, perceives them as a visual counterpart to the musical avantgarde, and illustrates its releases with the independently created photographs of Thomas Wunsch. Since 2001 the Wiesbaden based photographer has worked closely together with ECM. The exhibition at the Kunstverein, where all works on display were previously published as record or CD covers, shows a cross section of his artistic work from the years 2005 to 2011.
Thomas Wunsch describes his works, which are without any figurative reference, as Informal photography. Hence he ties in with an artistic movement†” and also attitude†”of the post-war modernism. In Informel art the focus is set not on formalistic pictorial language or geometric abstraction, but rather on the design process itself, which is intuitive and spontaneous and therefore detached from fixed structures or the strategic use of visual means. With the awareness of the design process and the emotions associated with it, the creative act itself comes to the fore. Thomas Wunsch's own positioning within Informel art, a movement that is originally associated with painting, focuses on the creative photographic process. His intuition leads him all the way from the motif search and selection through to the digital processing of the photographs. Using a computer pen he completes his art works by applying extensive changes to them. His medium, however, remains photography and the title of the exhibition at the Kunstverein leaves no doubt. The consistently used square image format is a counterpoint to the spontaneity of the images. The square, with its special geometric property, symbolizes a principle of arrangement created by human beings. In the photographs by Thomas Wunsch, formlessness and design, intuitive creation and aesthetic precision meet, leaving room for the viewer´s own associations.
Thomas Wunsch (born 1957 in Wiesbaden) started to take photographs at a very young age. At 17, he became a member of the Kodak Young Photographer's League and successfully participated in photographic competitions. He worked as a fashion and portrait photographer and for film productions in the USA before he devoted himself entirely to artistic photography in the year 2000.
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