The focus of photography on an ideology of representation fails to recognise that its “picture politics” is rooted in its potential to make things visible, to bring them into focus. Fritz Simak’s multifaceted photographic oeuvre, created over decades, addresses the question of the visibility of the world in the tension between the figurative and the abstract. It is about looking at everyday life as well as an intrinsic look into the medium itself. In often experimental ways, photochemical processes, among other things, become visible as (abstract) image generation (‘Pangaea’), while in his night-time images (‘Schönbrunner Mauer bei Nacht’ [Schönbrunn Wall at Night]), black-and-white photography acts as a metaphor for light, like a process of abstraction – what do we see when we see?

Vernissage 06.11.2025 | 18:30 Uhr | EIKON Schauraum | MuseumsQuartier Wien
Carl Aigner with Christoph Fuchs | In Conversation