Freischwimmer 155

For Wolfgang Tillmans, the primary function of photography is that it allows him to ‘think about the world in a non-verbal way which is very direct and at the same time incredibly subtle.’ Freischwimmer 155 – an immense abstract work nearly five metres in length and over two and half metres high – is one of a series of ‘free swimmer’ photographs made without a camera, by subjecting photographic paper to various forms of light and exposure. In this Freischwimmer series, Tillmans enlarges small-scale photographs made in the dark room to a monumental scale. In doing so, he transforms incidental detail into something more structural. Freischwimmer 155 was featured in British Art Show 7, in 2010.