Axel Hutte Biography
Axel Hütte was born in Esen in 1951, is a photographer associated with the Düsseldorf School of Photography and is best known for his night landscapes made with long exposures. He studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1973 to 1981 with Bernd and Hilla Becher, and became part of a group of German artists that included Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff.
These artists, known as the Düsseldorf School, developed an aesthetic based in the tradition of Neue Sachlichkeit and characterized by impassive, documentary-style images. Hütte's series As Dark/As Light (2001) captures cities around the world at night, with an emphasis on carefully constructed geometric compositions. Long exposures crystallize Hütte's landscapes, giving them a timeless, painterly quality. His work has been exhibited at the Musée d'art moderni de la Ville de Paris, the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern in Valencia, Spain, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid. Axel Hütte's photographs are devoid of people: man has no place in these arid landscapes. They follow the concept of "landscapes of the soul", an integral notion in European culture. But the artist's vision is not satisfied with the figurative level, because he chooses to show us geometric structures: a formation of dunes that dissolves into horizontal lines, a bamboo forest in which the vertical thrust predominates, treetops that appear as surfaces abstract. Axel Hütte's landscapes are not snapshots, but meticulous compositions and their beauty also lies in the eye of the beholder.
