SUN #252 (from Series #10) - Limited Edition 5 of 5 Photograph

ZEN OF PHOTOGRAPHY "Claus Stolz has set free the light. His sun photos are not determined by subject, composition or color. Rather it is form and content that is united here. All the artist does is to provide the device to let the light draw itself in the truest sense of the word "photography".The photographer usually uses the camera as a crutch for imitating or deceiving the visual organ. Following Stolz, we step from the shadow play of the dark chamber into the pure light of the idea itself. It´s the energy of the light that gets to us in Stolz´ sun pictures. Unleashing their destructive yet creative energy whole galaxies emerge. Creatures never seen before arise." Bernd Böhlendorf, Berlin The original world's first photograph "View from the Window at Le Gras" by N. Niepce was taken 1826. Those early photographic works were called "Heliographs". The physiochemical terms of the new technology had not yet been defined exactly. That was a long time ago, but they still exist, so to speak, literally carried to extremes in my special photographic works. It is all about long time exposures to the sun -- traces of solar energy burnt into film material through self-constructed devices that takes shots and holds lenses with a diameter of up to one meter. I think, this is the most radical form of analog photography. I do not focus my cameras on objects illuminated by the sun but put the focus on the light source itself. During an exposure time of a few seconds up to several hours the radiation eats its way into the film material and thus destroys it - not completely, but well dosed. Time as well as energies leave their traces and as such become visible and real: unique worlds of various colors and the finest internal sketches originate within the burst, melted or crystallized layers of film. We see direct unobstructed wall drawings of grotesque monster heads, bizarre grimaces, meter high cell rosettes and surreal formations. At first glance this might appear simplistic, but the results depend on multifaceted factors, the challenge is to dominate their interplay and interaction and to test it out in many different exposure series: material, exposure time, camera settings, the intensity of the sun light and the prevailing climatic conditions (e.g. interruptions of the exposure trace by clouds) and, most important -- the control of the film developing. The pictures are in no way digitally distorted.