Wolfgang Tillmanns, Freischwimmer 190, 2011, color photograph (c-type print), 5'9" x 7'3", Photo by Yakshini via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic License
If you are fortunate enough to visit London sometime between now and June 11th, visit the Tate Modern to see the exhibition of photographs by Wolfgang Tillmans. The artist, who is equally happy showing his work in fine art museums as he is publishing it in trendy magazines, is a sensitive and astute observer of the world. His images of young counterculturists, urban architecture, and still lifes all capture the emotion for which he is best known, somehow connecting the disparate spaces and people. Even his large color abstractions from his Freischwimmer series border on the romantic. These photographs were made entirely in the darkroom, without a camera or film, but rather with the machinery of the trade. The photographs of dye moving through liquid and fixed in the image are blown up in size so that the flowing tendrils of color and blooming pigment indicate both the tiny event and a universal tide.
