Thomas Freiler: Cameras Work

An extensive and lavishly illustrated survey catalog of the work of photographer-academic Thomas Freiler. Freiler’s inventive and unorthodox work grows out of Kandinsky and van Doesburg’s concept of “concrete art,” meaning the abstractionist trend – still vigorous today – that proposes an autonomous inner organisation in painting and plastic art independent of the external visual reality. Freiler’s photograms are made without a camera, using techniques involving a minimum of tools and a variety of light-sensitive materials and chemicals. Made using some techniques that date back to the very beginnings of photography, the images have an expressive, timeless quality. In color and black and white, many of the images mix media to add to the depth of the art.