Michael Reisch

“I see real landscape through the stencil of virtual landscape and vice-versa,” says Michael Reisch (*1964) about his disturbing works, which cannot be clearly defined as either reality or simulation. Reisch, who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and with Bernd Becher at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, photographs landscapes as well as industrial complexes and buildings with a large-format camera. He then digitizes the images and manipulates them subtly, erasing all allusions to a specific place and time, as well as all signs of human presence. By modifying the composition in other ways such as correcting the colors, he creates a fictional landscape, an “image” of landscape. This invented landscape can seem unbelievably real, while the real, existing landscape, on the other hand, appears unreal, removed, or imaginary. This is the first book to offer a concentrated look at the work of the Düsseldorf-based artist. Exhibition schedule: Fotomuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, July 26–September 24, 2006 · Fotoforum West Innsbruck, February–March 2007 · Landesgalerie Linz, April 19–June 17, 2007 · Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, September 9, 2007–January 6, 2008  · Kunsthalle Erfurt, January 20–March 2, 2008 · Städtische Galerie, Am Abdinghof Paderborn, April 20–June 29, 2008