For three decades, Wolfgang Tillmans has been questioning and redefining the boundaries of photography. Now, with a long-anticipated retrospective opening next week at the MuseumModernArt, the pioneering photographer is reflecting on his standout work.
When I caught up with Tillmans again by Zoom in mid-July, he was in Berlin, quality-checking prints to be sent to New York and playing with a large 1:10 scale model of the MoMA rooms. The way he installs his gallery and museum shows can be as unorthodox as his photographs. “He’s got photos framed and unframed, photos with texts, photos in vitrines, photos in magazines,” said Chris Dercon, who cocurated a Tillmans exhibition in 2017, when he was the director of Tate Modern.
A similar urge to spotlight something that everyone pretends not to see led Tillmans years later, in 2002, to photograph armpits in the London Underground. Social protocol permits people to ride in packed cars while ostensibly ignoring the proximity of erogenous zones. “I like to draw attention,” Tillmans said. “It’s the same modus as with the soldiers. Let’s be aware of how these things work.
Since the beginning, Tillmans has examined the physical reality of his art form. Technically speaking, a photograph is a mechanically printed image that is generated by light. After buying his first film-processing machine, when he graduated from college in 1992, Tillmans observed, while cleaning it with water, a residue of silver oxide slush. He ran paper through it and created shimmering abstractions—the first of his “Silver” series, which now includes more than 200 examples.
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