Wolfgang Tillmans: Kunsthalle Zürich - Tapa dura

A much-needed reprint of London photographer Wolfgang Tillmans' first book--published in 1995 and long out of print--this atmospheric, rhythmic compilation of black-and-white images combines portraits of youth culture, landscapes, city scenes, slogans, clippings from newspapers and book illustrations, neatly demonstrating the development of Tillmans' savvy, genre-crossing style, which lends itself so well to book form. Perennially influential to younger artists, Tillmans has become known for his salon-style exhibitions where images of different sizes and subjects are pinned to the wall in loosely connected constellations that have contributed greatly to how we read and view photographs. In a 2005 interview with artist Isa Genzken, Tillmans said of his approach, "I think it's much more radical to see and show things as they look instead of making them somehow subversive through alienation or estrangement." Tillmans is the first German-born artist, as well as the first photographer, to be awarded Britain's esteemed Turner Prize.

Wolfgang Tillmans was born in Remscheid, Germany in 1968 and studied at Bournemouth & Poole College of Art and Design. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential artists of his generation. His work, whilst appearing to capture the immediacy of the moment and character of the subject, also examines the dynamics of photographic representation. From the outset he ignored the traditional separation of art exhibited in a gallery from images and ideas conveyed through other forms of publication, giving equal weight to both. His expansive floor to ceiling installations feature images of subcultures and political movements, as well as portraits, landscapes, still-lives and abstract imagery varying in scale from postcard- to wall-sized prints. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1996 and Tate Britain, London, in a major retrospective in 2003. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2000.