ANDREA EBENER

Young Swiss artist Andrea Ebener (*1987) has created of group of self-portraits that she first took with her digital camera. At the same time she has started to discover for herself old techniques like photogelatine printing or buying the necessary chemical components to create cyanoprints.

She produces them herself on watercolor papers. Each of the image that literally „goes through“ her hands is unique, no other person is involved. This way the notion of the often abused declaration „vintage print“ comes back to life, as each print is created by the artist herself shortly after the original image was taken digitally.

I am very interested and magically taken by her images, which are the result of combining technological innovation („the digital“) and traditional craftmanship. And I believe that this combination will be a way out for some of the young creative photographers who are sitting in front of their screen asking themselves: „What can I add to the creation of photographic art that has not been done yet? How can I develop my very own, distinctive handwriting?“

And, there is one thing to add: Images like those created by Andrea Ebener can only be made photographically, not through any other technique. Which is – apart from the always given criteria of artistic quality – another very important aspect when judging fine art photography: Could the images have been done better than by using photography? In the case of Ebner’s cyanoprints and photogelatine prints the answer fortunately is a clear „no“, they could not have.

Walter Keller