Image-Analytical Photography 1968-1974: Bildanalytische Photographie

Timm Rautert’s Image-Analytical Photography cycle may be considered one of the key photographic works of the 1960s and 1970s. It was produced at a time of radical discourse about the role of art in society. Drawing on the influence of conceptual art, which was still in its infancy at the time, Rautert focused on the conditions surrounding his own creative process, the question of authorship, original and copy, and the role of the viewer. His cycle of works deals with issues that, in view of the technical means photography had at its disposal and its notional claim to depict the world realistically and truthfully, assumed particular importance and urgency–as they still do today, especially given the digital image worlds that we now occupy. The book is published in conjunction with the exhibition Bildanalytische Photographie, 1968 -1974 at the Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden (July 1st to September 25th, 2016), where the entire cycle was presented for the first time.