Volker Heinze
#1
#1, 1993
From Alias
C-Print, 24.5 x 16.5 cm
Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
2010-014-001
© Volker Heinze
b. 1959 (Duisburg, DE), lives and works in Duesseldorf, DE
Ahnung (inkling), the title of one of Heinze’s photo books, perfectly suits his entire oeuvre. Dark, hazy, and fragmented, his photographs often seem mysterious and reduced, resembling the shadows of an image. In his more recent work Urban Defects, Heinze creates montages of compressed digital cityscapes to form livid fragments of a metaphorical megalopolis. For him, the artist’s book is a Gesamtkunstwerk with democratic ambitions. This is also true of Alias, with its series of small, extremely dark close-ups of male faces. Who are these men? A letter from a murderer and a few random words from the German constitution provide a framework for interpretation. The rest remains concealed in the image.