Detlef Orlopp

Some six decades ago, Detlef Orlopp (1937*) created an extremely self-contained photographic work, entirely dedicated to the vivid diversity of landscapes and faces. An upcoming exhibition - the first comprehensive retrospective of his work - features around 150 photographs revealing the way in which the artist continually crosses the borders between his work on the image and his fascination with the morphological wealth of our planet.

In the mid-1950s, Detlef Orlopp studied at the School of Arts and Crafts in Saarbrucken under Otto Steinert. Initially, the experimental methods and artistic concepts of the initiator of “Subjective Photography” greatly influenced the young photographer.  However, Orlopp soon began to consistently develop his own photographic point of view, transforming the surface of the landscape into a constructed and reduced image, without losing sight of the object.  Mountain formations, icebergs and water surfaces, but also faces, are some of the reoccurring groups of motifs found in the work of this photographer.

A catalogue is published in the edition Folkwang / Steidl.