Image augmentée - Mehrbildlichkeit - The augmented image (2019)
Arriving in France, Florian Schmitt began once again to question the status of the photographic image, his use of the augmented image enabling him to think about photography differently and to introduce an element of spatiality.
A photograph has long been seen purely as a flat image or a fixed light print. Challenging this perception of photography, Schmitt tries to think of photography in a new way, leaning towards a spatial approach which itself generates a new aesthetic method. This is why he appeals to the notion of atmospheres present in the work of German philosopher Gernot Böhme. This form of aesthetics can be understood as a general theory of perception that takes man in his environment as its starting point.
The (de)constructed photographic image
Schmitt’s interest in photography is based on his perception of the city around him, with buildings and architecture playing a central role. Paris is the city of the birth of photography, one of the most photographed cities in the world, and the city of light...
How do we perceive it? What are we looking at? How can we take photographs of Paris without repeating pictures already taken? How can we produce photos that take us elsewhere?
By taking "photographic notes" Schmitt creates a personal archive of images. He then prints, cuts, folds and gathers them, before making a model and finally re-photographing them. Although the result looks like a photograph made in digital form (with Photoshop or other software) the whole model is handmade. Only the shooting is done with a digital camera.
In his practical work, he starts from the idea of a constructed photograph, constructed even in the very sense of the term of creation. He uses printed and model photographs to create and make a photograph that is close to collage and trompe-l'oeil. Schmitt thereby uses photography as a tool/means of construction. The photography is deconstructed in the sense of the deconstruction of photographic images. Photography as such is a two-dimensional flat medium. Space and architecture are formed by the three-dimensional. How can we make bi- and three-dimensionality interact? How can we free photography from its two-dimensional nature?
It is also a question of materiality and immateriality. Light is codified by the photographic image. If we understand the light print as a starting point and start to question this status, we can begin to question the materiality of the image, its surface, its thickness, its density, its underside, its in-between nature, etc.
In this respect, the (de)construction of photographic images allows Schmitt to create spatial images.
For Schmitt, as a flâneur and a photographer, the city has always been a place of questioning. Documentary (architectural) photographs do not necessarily take us to another place. Nevertheless, it is important to use them and integrate them into the artistic process. For his photographs, Schmitt works with models to build architectural images at the crossroads between reality and fiction. He uses landscape and architecture as a starting point to create photographic fictions. We might call this a (de)constructivist photographic approach - between utopia and dystopia.
By linking the city, architecture and photography, Schmitt enlarges our field of perception and our visual culture. Disrupting and disorienting the viewer's viewpoint can lead to questions about the locations photographed and about the photographs themselves. By creating new free architectural photographic forms, photography is used as a "visionary device".
In order to find a visual language between the two-dimensional nature of photography and the three-dimensional nature of space, Schmitt’s research has led him to adopt a multidisciplinary approach. For this, he uses photography as a starting point, then integrating other forms of plastic art (graphics, drawing, but also software such as InDesign or others). The juxtaposition of photography and graphic design allows Schmitt to work in a more abstract way and to build, (re)translate and interpret reality, towards space and vice versa. Starting from a three-dimensional space, he then reaches the more abstract stage of graphic design, light or pure forms that are between the two-dimensional and immersion.
These concepts inspire him to reflect on a mixture of photography, installation, atmosphere and space, leading him towards an augmented image...
It is all about the interplay between the atmosphere, the space, the photographic space and the exhibition space and is therefore a kind of liberation of photography from its two-dimensional quality, using images of the city that surrounds us and that we perceive as a sort of database in our daily lives.
Image augmentée (french version - version française - PDF) (2019)
Making of Genau JETZT ! Innsbruck, an investigation with Arno Gisinger | © Stummlaut (2023)
Interview with Meike Welz - Kamikaze Kama (2016)
Katja Hoffmann - With playful calculation | Mit Spielerischem Kalkül (2015)
Joseph Imorde - Im Gleichgewicht (2011)
2023 Genau Jetzt! Right Now! | InnSitu BTV, Innsbruck
2021 Précipité | Mains d‘Œuvres, Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine
2020 Brauhausfotografie 29 | Brauhaus, Siegen
2019 L'enjeu de la surface | IMMIXgalerie, Paris
2018 Biennale de l'Image Tangible | Mairie du 20e, Paris
2018 Un mur d'images | Nuit blanche (avec Diaph 8), Paris
2016 Groupshow | FONIS-Galerie, Düsseldorf
2014 Raumangelegenheiten | UNION, Cologne
2014 Gruppenausstellung 2014, Städt. Galerie Haus Seel, Siegen
2014 RAUM | Büro für Brauchbarkeit, Cologne
2013 Salon deux, Galerie D45, Düsseldorf
2012 5x3 | Kunstraum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf
2011 JungArt | Alte Münze, Berlin
2011 Ecken und Kanten | Städt. Galerie Haus Seel, Siegen
2011 Brauhausfotografie 20 | Brauhaus, Siegen
2010 Partizipia-Kunstpreis, d-52. raum für zeitgenössische kunst, Düsseldorf
2010 Das Innere ist jetzt Außen | Städt. Galerie Haus Seel, Siegen
Awards
Promotion Territoire(s) | concours photographique | MC93 et In Seine-Saint-Denis, Saint-Denis
TRAVERSÉES | bourse / grant | CIPAC, FRAAP, Ministère de la culture, Paris
Pré-sélectioné by Poly-Paris | Prix création émergente en Ile-de-France, Paris
Kunstsicher-Award, Siegen
Ilse Krahl-Award, Siegen