Anna & Bernhard Blume

Only 10 or 15 years ago, Anna and Bernhard Blume staged with great artistry settings emphasising the independent life objects appear to assume. In the computer age, this magic behaviour by objects, which suddenly seem alive, has become part of the customary idiom of an entire genre of mystery films, sci-fi stories, and the like. “In a certain sense, we were possibly pioneers of a world of perception which today is the domain of an entire film industry,” the artists say, with a twinkle in their eyes.

Anna and Bernhard Blume always devise their picture sequences jointly and always do all the work themselves: from designing the sets and costumes, via taking the shots of each other, through to developing the negatives and producing enlargements. During each of these steps, the artwork is continuously refined, polished, and painted. “We paint with our camera,” Anna Blume avers, "and this painterly work continues in the lab, too.” However, their black-and-white photo series do not involve digital manipulation or montage. Instead, they really do involve a flying, crashing, and swirling world. In order to take what are in fact quite dangerous photographs, the artists make use of securing ropes, safety nets, mattresses, etc.