Ulrich Van Brodt

What do you mean... 'inspired by...'??? - I am surrealistic, deconstructivistic in my mind and what comes out is the result of that!
Is my work 'Inspired by'? ... just forget about that ASAP!
I am inspired by myself and my own work and - in the worst case - irritated by the works of others! Forget about them and watch mine as I got my own history!

I work on this kind of luminographic art brut photography as shown in the mainstay for almost 15 years now, using the camera as an instrument for painting in the first place. It all started on conventional film but this is long ago.
There is one question many people asked me watching my original canvas prints: "Was it you who painted this?" The answer is: Yes and no - yes, it is my picture and no, I did not use a brush so it's up to you to decide whether it is a paintig or a photography... or both.
As one of my favorite interests is neurobiology and the creative process in human perception I am not interested in taking photos that show what is visible as a fact of the outside world. Instead of this I take a step back behind the eye and have a closer look on what could be seen, which is of course absolutely individual... is that true? I know, people love to believe that but... I ...

I have studied Photodesign from 1994-1997 at FH Bielefeld - concentrated on generative photography and found my way inspired by the Generatve Photography of Gottfried Jäger and Karl Martin Holzhäuser
and then continued my studies of
Fine Arts / Experimental Photography at Kunsthochschule Kassel in the class of Floris Neusuess from 1997 - 2000
Graduated there in 2000
And.. okay, no question, I was always influenced in one or another way by my intensive engagement in lucid dreaming, listening to music, reading and doing philosophy on the one hand side and Art Brut in general as well as especially the art of Jean Dubuffet on the other.
And, to drop some names:
Joel Peter Witkin,...
Francis Bacon,...
Andy Goldsworthy,...
J.R. Giger (yes, really),...
Anselm Kiefer,...
Gerhard Richter,...
Duane Michals,...
Andy Warhol,...
Urs Lüthi,...
- but in the end: all of them for themselves and me myself on my own...!