| Leah Oates: When did you know you were an artist, and how did you develop as an artist? Sebastian Lemm: It was a very gradual process. Growing up, I never really considered being an artist, although I’ve always had a desire for creative freedom. It took me a while to figure out how to best live that desire, and I made career choices in my life that were not really a direct path towards being an artist. These took me from studying engineering for a few years to going to art school and doing documentary photography and commercial work alongside installations and more experimental photos. It was only after coming to New York in 2000 that I found a path within photography that I thought was worth pursuing. There is a strong sense of heritage in German photography, and moving to New York from Berlin helped me distance myself from these and other well-trafficked paths in the medium and develop my own concepts. |
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Leah Oates speaks with German-born photographer Sebastian Lemm on the difference between painting and photography and what it takes to be a successful artist in New York.
Leah Oates: When did you know you were an artist, and how did you develop as an artist?
Sebastian Lemm: It was a very gradual process. Growing up, I never really considered being an artist, although I’ve always had a desire for creative freedom. It took me a while to figure out how to best live that desire, and I made career choices in my life that were not really a direct path towards being an artist. These took me from studying engineering for a few years to going to art school and doing documentary photography and commercial work alongside installations and more experimental photos. It was only after coming to New York in 2000 that I found a path within photography that I thought was worth pursuing. There is a strong sense of heritage in German photography, and moving to New York from Berlin helped me distance myself from these and other well-trafficked paths in the medium and develop my own concepts.
LO: What is your work about and how do you create it?
SL: My work is informed by nature in a broad sense, but my interest goes beyond depicting the environment. Much like the German Romanticist’s Caspar David Friedrichs’ work—where nature was not painted as it was seen but was used as a mirror of the soul—I create images that suggest a subconscious experience of what surrounds me.
Although I shoot on film to achieve the highest resolution, digital tools are a major, integral part of my creative process. I use structures, patterns, repetitions and emptiness to visualize an inner state, external event, or whatever else you may associate with it. I see the nature I reconfigure as something that relates to itself—through repetition—and also to its surroundings—through isolation from its context.
In my current series schattenseite and subtraction, both of which were on view in solo shows this spring at David Weinberg Gallery in Chicago and Peer Gallery in New York, the idea of isolation is very important. The shows were entitled Editing Nature, and to a large extent, this is what I did. In schattenseite, I used harsh flash during the shooting process to rip nature out of its context, and in subtraction, I erased the entire background of the original image and made it paper white in the digital editing stage. With both of these series, I was interested in constructed absence—by eliminating information, I not only draw attention to what is left but also to what is no longer there. There are hints as to what is missing, and it is up to the viewer to “fill in the blanks.”
LO: Do you think art has a function in society, and if so, what is its function for artists, the arts community, and individuals outside the arts who like art?
SL: Art can help open your eyes and broaden your vision to outside experiences—at its best, art catches you off guard and challenges the status quo. The artist analyses his or her views on life and what is going on in the world, and through the creative process, these thoughts and experiences are expressed in a work that brings ‘added value’ to a community. Society in return should nurture art and its values.
LO: What makes photography a unique medium as opposed to painting?
SL: Photographic techniques have been used by painters (camera obscura) well before the invention of photography, and the two mediums have had a symbiotic love/hate relationship ever since. The difference between straight photography and painting is—simply put, and not including photography’s shortcomings—the difference between a ‘reality’ we want to believe in versus a transformed reality. It seems to be deeply rooted in us that photography, even in its post-post-modern incarnation, is still conceived of (and sometimes mistaken as) a record of a past reality. I hear this a lot when talking to people about my work: most of their thoughts are around the aspect of the ‘real’ even though the alterations in my images are sometimes quite obvious.
Painting (and other visual media), on the other hand, is an artist’s highly personal expression of an experience he or she has already lived and processed, as opposed to straight photography’s observed and later edited external view. Photography, however, also offers a variety of manipulation techniques, digital as well as analog—you can think of Man Ray’s work, for example—to construct images that are not just capturing the “decisive moment” but rather are a processed expression that comes from an inner place. There’s the unique possibility of exploiting the illusionary innocence inherent to the medium. Photography is envious of painting’s physicality, the energy one feels in a brush stroke, the tactile sensations of the surface. Even scale in photography cannot make up for that.
LO: Many artists want to become well known for their work. I understand this in terms of having more support to make your work and better venues to show it, but otherwise I sometimes think it’s not a good goal to have at all. What are your thoughts on this?
SL: Speaking for myself, the creation process is very addictive. The desire to create better work than before, to visualize and then realize new concepts and ideas—this is incredibly satisfying and this is what drives me. A show is an important payoff because it provides opportunities for exposure and feedback from people who are interested in your work. Being recognized through sales or in press is encouraging and essential not only for an artist’s career, but also for the next steps in the work itself—to be frank, New York is an expensive place to live, and the creative process takes time, space, and materials. Although this type of “success” is relative and cannot be a primary goal in creating work, it is a reward I could not imagine wanting to live without.
LO: I love artists, and I think that the arts community in NYC is quite friendly and open, something I actually found surprising at first. What are your thoughts on this?
SL: I find not only the arts community but the whole city to be very friendly in general. Everyone’s work is so unique, which encourages a sense of healthy but indirect competition. The supportive environment created by my fellow artists is what’s ultimately best for everyone, and it’s part of what makes New York such a cultural center.
LO: What makes great art, and what do you think are some of the best artworks ever made?
SL: Art that challenges the perception of a medium is something very inspiring to me. Henri Matisse, Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Gerhard Richter, and also texts by Edmund Burke (Sublime and Beautiful), Gilles Deleuze (Rhizome), Roland Barthes (Camera Lucida) come to mind, but the list is endless. All of these artists have thought about a medium in a way that has influenced the thinking of generations of artists.
LO: Who are your favorite contemporary artists and why?
SL: I relate more to painting and drawing than I do to photography. I am fascinated by the conceptual work of Rodney Graham, and I like the visual language of German painters Frank Nitsche and Tim Eitel. I saw some dark grey paintings by Romanian artist Adrian Ghenie last year that still stick in my head. Strong visuals and a compelling concept are what draw me into the work.
LO: What are you working on now, and what upcoming projects do you have coming up?
SL: My solo shows Editing Nature in Chicago and New York have just closed, and there is still a lot of follow up to do for those. There are also a few shows on the horizon that need some attention. I have started working on a new series that I am very excited about. I can’t say much about it simply because it is in its very early stages, but it is an extension of the ideas behind my most recent work.
