DE
Ralf Peters

In his conceptual photography, Ralf Peters stages the character of everyday objects and locations, presenting them in a new light. Reduced to their essentials, motifs such as bridges, petrol stations and landscapes are abstracted to the essence of their colour and form, appearing to dissolve into pixels. Peters challenges viewers to question what they see by blurring the line between photomontage and documentary photography. In doing so, he criticises the image aesthetics of consumer culture and the artificial world presented through digital image processing, which skews the human understanding of "reality".

The artist approaches his subjects conceptually; observation and documentation of moments are the starting points for his practice. Peters studies and documents places and objects over long periods of time, carefully analyzing their details. He then assembles the various snapshots he has collected using a freely structured post-processing technique, changing and reshaping the images. His montages are created similarly to the manner in which a sculptor brings materials into form, or how a painter explores varying colour combinations.

Ralf Peters' desire to depict the real, the human, the natural and urban, has been a theme throughout the history of art and photography. With the development of digital photography as a mass medium, the question of authenticity in presentation of the real has often been addressed playfully. Digital image production rooting in abstraction and formal variation became a major trend in the history of digital photography in the late 1960s and 1970s. Early experiments such as those by Nancy Burson or Charles Csuri documented the characteristic features of the medium expressed through repetition and variation, and challenged the idea of the original.

Ralf Peter's methodology is related to these developments. Subjects are transformed and abstracted until they become unrecognisable ciphers of their original form, and as Hito Steyerl also attests in contemporary photography, shakes up the perception of the real.

Ralf Peters studied at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, the École des Beaux Arts in Nîmes and the Akademie der Bildenden Künste Munich. At the beginning of his professional career he used the traditional media of painting and sculpture, before dedicating himself to photography and digital photomontage since the late 1990s. Ralf Peters lives and works in Hamburg.

Selected works

Shine 1
Shine 1, 2023
Shine 2
Shine 2, 2023
Outlook 1 - 3
Outlook 1 - 3, 2022
Segel
Segel, 2022
In Out
In Out, 2022
Schwarz/Weiß
Schwarz/Weiß, 2003
Transfer 1
Transfer 1, 2022
Pleasure 2
Pleasure 2, 2022
Transfer 4
Transfer 4, 2022
Pleasure 3
Pleasure 3, 2022
Gold
Gold, 2022
Aquarium 2
Aquarium 2, 2022
Pleasure 1
Pleasure 1, 2022
Fragility
Fragility, 2021 - 2022
Winter #31
Winter #31, 2016 - 2021

Exhibitions

THINGS BEHIND THINGS
THINGS BEHIND THINGS
21.04. - 25.06.2022
Ralf Peters, Marten Schech
Winter, Keen Insight
Winter, Keen Insight
31.03. - 27.05.2017
Keen Insight
Keen Insight
12.09. - 15.11.2014
Night Colours
Night Colours
03.02. - 26.03.2011
24 Hours
24 Hours
03.04. - 17.05.2008
Sculptural Photography
Sculptural Photography
17.04. - 19.06.2004

Edition

gelb, grün, rot, blau
gelb, grün, rot, blau, 2020
Herbst 1
Herbst 1, 2020
Herbst 2
Herbst 2, 2020
Herbst 3
Herbst 3, 2020
Berg-Boote
Berg-Boote, 2014
Golf Japan
Golf Japan, 2014
Tree
Tree, 2010
Different Persons I
Different Persons I, 2006
Tankstelle Süd
Tankstelle Süd, 2005
Mole 2
Mole 2, 2004
Mole 3
Mole 3, 2004
Hafen
Hafen, 2004
Boot
Boot, 2004
Mole 1
Mole 1, 2004
Ralf Peters
Ralf Peters, 2015
Until Today
Until Today, 2010
Plastische Fotografie
Plastische Fotografie, 2004
100 Meisterwerke (100 Masterpieces)
100 Meisterwerke (100 Masterpieces)
09.07. - 27.08.2023
ART / FOOD / MUSIC
ART / FOOD / MUSIC
24.06. - 25.06.2023
Nachts
Nachts
10.09. - 20.11.2022
Identität nicht nachgewiesen
Identität nicht nachgewiesen
07.05. - 03.10.2022
Flo Maak, Ralf Peters, Myriam Holme, Marten Schech
Galerie Andres Thalmann - Artists of the Gallery
Galerie Andres Thalmann - Artists of the Gallery
26.11. - 05.03.2022
Flying Balances
Flying Balances
20.04. - 02.06.2018
Lichtempfindlich 2, Fotografie aus der Sammlung Schaufler
Lichtempfindlich 2, Fotografie aus der Sammlung Schaufler
15.04. - 06.01.2020
Ralf Peters, Götz Diergarten, Marie-Jo Lafontaine

Architecture

Keen Insight - Zurich
Keen Insight - Zurich, 2016 - 2018

Channel

THINGS BEHIND THINGS: Meeting Marten Schech & Ralf Peters
THINGS BEHIND THINGS: Meeting Marten Schech & Ralf Peters, 2022-05-14 15:44:39
Ralf Peters, Marten Schech
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