Hiroyuki Masuyama - Fotografie

Opening on January 22 at 7 PM

In an extensive body of work, Hiroyuki Masuyama (born 1968 in Tsukuba, Japan) explores the most significant German landscape painter of the Romantic period: Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). However, during his travels to the locations, mountains, peaks, and coasts that Friedrich mentions in his titles, Masuyama realizes that the sights and landscapes either no longer exist in the same way or never existed at all. Masuyama learns that Friedrich also did not paint what he saw; instead, he distilled his impressions in the studio, and the final work emerged from nature, his sketches, and his intentions.

Masuyama's photographs related to Caspar David Friedrich are the result of a complete recomposition from thousands of images, some of which Masuyama captures in the very regions where Friedrich once found his inspirations. Masuyama develops his photographs based on studies and sketches using digital photography techniques, refining his images until they achieve a deceptive resemblance, even though the subjects are by no means identical.

Erik Stephan, Kunstsammlung Jena