Friederike von Rauch

Artist Bio

Using an analogue camera and diffuse natural light, this Berlin-based photographer specializes in images of defamiliarized architecture. When she was awarded residencies in Brussels and Rotterdam in 2006 and 2007, she developed a photographic project that addressed these cities, as well as Berlin, a third source of inspiration. (flipkart)

About her Photography:

Friederike von Rauch is one of those artists whose works surprises us at first glance by it’s clarity and total reticence. But behind her pictures we can sense that the perceptible simplicity is the result of precise, painstaking preparation and very clear thinking about her own procedure. Von Rauch has set herself rules for her work which she follows, focusing crucially on the question of the truth of the pictures. She exclusively uses analogue photography for her shots. Thus in the age of the total digitalization of images she still adheres to traditional photographic methods. That helps avoid any temptation to hand over all responsibility to the computer and the corresponding programs. She takes only real places as her subjects. She does not invent, she finds. She makes no change to reality as she finds it. She works only with natural light or existing light sources. And lastly, the camera is at eye level, not tilted, and always occupies a point of view an observer could attain under natural circumstances. These self-imposed rules do not imply any dogma or compulsion for her; they are a natural inner propensity. For her, her principles are normal and a matter of course, therefore she remains true to herself and her aesthetic without experiencing any doubts. No disruptive detail is altered, shifted, or covered up; rather she spends as long as it takes looking for the right viewing angle until everything fits into the concept she has developed of a picture. That can take time, and occasionally she does not reach that point because the light or other elements of reality fail to correspond to her concept. If that is the case, she does not take a photograph.
–Andres Lepik

Friederike von Rauch’s Website