Thomas Kellner - Photographer

A while back I was doing the next best thing to actually making photographs; I was looking at photographs. Actually, I was trolling the web looking for photographers that inspired me. And it didn't take me long to discover Thomas Kellner, a German photographer. What I love most about his work are the "deconstructed" portfolios. These consist of architecture as well as portraits and are shot entirely on film (check out the negative info on the prints). This technique consists of taking many images of a subject, with each image being just a part of the whole. Each image is carefully composed moving the camera as if it were a typewriter (left to right, return, next line, left to right) and twisting the camera to create a dynamic view on each negative. Then the negatives are placed in rows and contact printed (which becomes the finished product) so that when viewed together, they create a brand new vision of the original whole. Needless to say, I am impressed by the mere determination it must take to execute the whole process. Each row contains the same number of negatives and every negative is perfectly composed as to fit the whole image. It almost seems as if you could straighten each negative and have a complete image with no missing pieces. I hope to have the patience one day to actually attempt a Thomas Kellner "deconstruction".