The V&A Museum presents Shadow Catchers an Exhibition open through 20 February 2011.

Floris Neusüss, ‘Untitled, (Körperfotogramm), Kassel, 1967′, 1967. Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel, Graphische Sammlung, Germany, © Courtesy of Floris Neusüss

The essence of photography lies in its seemingly magical ability to fix shadows on light-sensitive surfaces. Normally, this requires a camera. Shadow Catchers, however, presents the work of five international contemporary artists – Floris Neusüss, Pierre Cordier, Susan Derges, Garry Fabian Miller and Adam Fuss – who work without a camera. Instead, they create images on photographic paper by casting shadows and manipulating light, or by chemically treating the surface of the paper.

Images made with a camera imply a documentary role. In contrast, camera-less photographs show what has never really existed. They are also always ‘an original’ because they are not made from a negative. Encountered as fragments, traces, signs, memories or dreams, they leave room for the imagination, transforming the world of objects into a world of visions.

V&A South Kensington
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL
Tel. +44 (0)20 7942 2000

www.vam.ac.uk

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