Artist Statement
Vita
I've been taking pictures for almost 50 years. I learned my craft in the days of analogue photography. As material was costly and the results were not immediately assessable, you had to work with great care. Due to the lack of zoom lenses you were accustomed to always seek the optimal point of view. From both, I still benefit today. Over the years, I have refined my seeing more and more. In various groups of works, I have dealt extensively with shapes, textures, and colours. Thus I created highly reduced, sometimes purely graphical images with an ever-increasing degree of abstraction. Meanwhile, my skills allow me to free myself from such formal rigour as well as from photography's golden rules and enable me to create my present, painting-like, abstract works.
Till Eitel
works and lives in Bonn, Germany.
Since 2007 Full-time fine art photographer.
1987-2006 Marketing-management for various enterprises.
1982-1987 Studies at the universities of Marburg and Frankfurt.
1976-1977 Professional education in photography and photo lab.
Born in 1960.
Exhibitions
2017 | Gegenbilder | GuerillaGallery | Bonn | solo show
2014 | Erupting Blues | Paul-Clemen-Museum | Bonn | group show
2014 | Behind the Façade | KunstSalon | Cologne | solo show
2014 | Change | Quartier Süd | Montabaur | solo show*
2010 | fine eye photography | SüdstART | Bonn | group show
2009 | fine eye photography | Lattemann Gallery | Darmstadt | solo show*
2008 | Couples | Kunstmeile | Cologne | group show*
2008 | Chapeau! | First Flush | Bonn | solo show
Catalogues
From: „Wandel“ catalogue, introductory text by Ariane Waldschmidt, art historian M.A.
On-site Consulting
You are interested in one of my works and would like to know whether—and perhaps where—it would fit in your home or office? I am happy to consult you on site. Using augmented reality technology, I will virtually place the picture on your walls—in your presence! Thus various positions can be directly compared and together we then define the best possible place. If required, I will measure and photograph the wall in order to create a true-to-scale visualization in my studio that precisely shows how your room will look in conjunction with my work. And if it makes sense, even around corners! *
* For a collector, I have developed a technique that enables one to „fold“ an image: A high quality print on Hahnemühle fine-art paper is laminated onto an angled piece of aluminum Dibond and mounted over-corner.
Art Rental
New: To business customers, I now offer the option of renting my works. In Germany this is fiscally beneficial, because renting art is tax-deductible whereas acquiring art ist not. Most importantly, art in the office creates an attractive, unique, and inspiring environment for employees and customers alike – even with limited budgets. No other investment in your business premises will bring you a higher impact for your money.
Whether it comes to equipping an entire office or merely a conference room: I will create a tailor-made art concept for you. Just get in touch with me!
FAQ
For each image I meticulously choose the material in a complex, often multi-step process. For the work group "Gegenbilder" I mostly use high-quality fine-art cotton papers made by Harman or Hahnemühle. Their extremely matte surfaces emphasise the painting-like look and feel and partly add an almost three-dimensional depth which can not be achieved when using classical photographic paper. But neither a website nor a catalogue can depict this. Therefore – and in order to appreciate the many fine details of the images – I recommend you to see the originals! Besides, I am artist and that of course means that I'm always proud to showcase my work ...
Buying art - not only photographic art – is a bit like falling in love: a gut decision! Potential price increases should not be given priority. Nevertheless let me point out two aspects that are essential for the prospective value:
• Take into consideration the number of copies made. An edition of five is very limited and thus optimal in terms of possible value appreciation; with 50 or more copies value apprecitation is rather unlikely. (Caution: Several vendors are working with pseudo-technical terms such as „open edition“ which is nothing but a clever wording for „unlimited“. The expensive works of Peter Lik, for instance, come in „limited“ editions of 950 – most of his buyers only realise when trying to resell a piece that due to the enormous circulation there is no secondary market.)
• The most important criterion for collectors is and remains the artist: How unique is his work? How passionate and inspired is he about it? How has his work developed over the years? Where will he go? Ideally, you should get to know the artist in person before buying; hence you can best determine his potential.
I recommend the following article on evaluation and increase of value, published by F.A.Z. (in German).
No. I use a Canon digital SLR; many of my works are also created with a Panasonic mirrorless compact system camera with prime lenses (fixed focal lengths).
On the contrary, most of my images are smaller in size than the object photographed. For some works this seems hard to believe, e.g. „February 4, 1950“: it looks as if it has been significantly enlarged, but in fact it is less than a quarter of the original size. Or take „18 Eintel“: the print looks like a 1:1 mapping, but the motive was as wide as a building.
The small formats with only a slightly higher – but still very low – edition (10 copies instead of 5) start from as little as € 180 („February 4, 1950“), € 250 („Quartier Süd“) or € 350 („Hasdrubal ante Portas“). With these specially discounted prices, I want to enable anyone to start collecting. Moreover, the test prints that I sell in some cases also make very special gifts.
By purchasing one of my works, you instantly obtain an increase in value of 10%! The reason being that my sales prices reflect that the less copies of an edition there are available, the more valuable they become. Therefore, the price of each copy is slightly higher than that of the previous one. (And, why not?, a bit of an incentive to buy earlier copies :)
[smiles] If you would like me to, I'd be happy to reveal that to you over a cappuccino ...