Vendredi 12 Juin 2015 11:49:00 par Emilie Lemoine dans Expositions

Fifteen million years ago an island rose out of the sea off the west coast of Africa. Again and again ash and lava shot into the skies and plummeted back into the waves of the Atlantic in an inferno of fire and water, smoke and steam until, layer by layer, a black volcanic cone rose above the water. Lanzarote, the "Isla Negra". The island has never come to rest. The volcanoes remain active through to the present day and throw up faulted strata, whilst wind and water simultaneously break the porous rock from the cliffs, grinding it into black granulate.

Luis © Christian von Alvensleben 2014
Silbergelatine Vergrößerung von recomart, 84 x 119 cm, Auflage 3+AP

Christian von Alvensleben has been acquainted with the island for a long time. He has been taking photographs here since the late 1960ies and for his clients in advertising and editorial offices has staged major photo productions against the backdrop of black beaches and bare landscapes. Helga and Christian von Alvensleben returned in 2014 and have embraced the island for its own sake.

They have captured its very spirit in stark black and white images: The black cliffs and the waves soaring as white horses out of the ocean, the radiantly white salt in the black stone salterns of the salt marshes, gleaming black cross-sections of geological strata at the breaklines of the cliffs, white clouds against a dark sky, the light reflecting in the fisherman's dark eyes... In search of the island's unique original characteristics, Christian von Alvensleben has created a self-contained series of works in a pictorial language as a photographic round trip of the island, almost akin to a novel recounting life in Lanzarote.

El Pleltito © Christian von Alvensleben 2014
Silbergelatine Vergrößerung von recomart, 84 x 119 cm, Auflage 3+AP

In a simple and impressive manner, Helga and Christian von Alvensleben capture their impressions without any artificial lighting. Once again the images bear testament to the marvelling encounter with life's language of form. In their formal stringency and reduction, the photographs constitute a respectful convergence with the circumstances of a life deeply engraved in the faces of the island and those of its inhabitants. (Text: Sebastian Lux Management, F.C. Gundlach Foundation)

More information: alvensleben.com