Claus Stolz

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 diame...

1988–92 Studies at the Free Art Academy, Mannheim, with Gerd Lind, Wolfgang Reindel and Rolf Schneider.

Claus Stolz is a member of the German Photographic Association (DGPh)
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TEACHING
since 2016 lecturer at the Freie Kunstakademie Mannheim
(Mannheim, Germany)
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SOLO and GROUP SHOWS, ART FAIRS
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2021 LICHTECHT - Edgar Lissel und Claus Stolz, Port25 Room for Contemporary Art, Mannheim, Germany (C)
2020 Materie ist Möglichkeit - MATTER IS POSSIBILITY, Ernst-Bloch-Zentrum, Ludwigshafen, Germany (S)
2019 CHAMBER PLAY, Knut Eckstein, Barbara Hindahl, Claus Stolz, Oberwelt, Stuttgart, Germany
2018 Jubilee exhibition: 10 years Photo Edition Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2017 VELBUELE, Myriam Holme and Claus Stolz, Kunstverein Bellevue-Saal, Wiesbaden, Germany
2017 ICHDUERSIESES, Delegierte Kunstwerke, Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, Germany
2016 TIMELINES, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, GROWING, Kunstverein Heddesheim, Germany (S) - CONCRETE AND GENERATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY / Part 2: Marco Breuer, Richard Caldicott, Inge Dick, Harald Mairböck, ​Ewald Maurer, Andreas Müller-Pohle, ​Claus Stolz, Photo Edition Berlin, Berlin, Germany - Claus Stolz SOLITÄR, Fotoraum Köln e.V., Cologne, Germany (E)
2015 RAW EXPOSURE Photographic works based on (in-)organic and mechanical processes By Edgar Lissel (Austria), Harald Mairböck (Austria), Claus Stolz (Germany) and Jiri Sigut (Czechia), Photo Edition Berlin, Berlin, Germany - video here - fotofever, Paris, France - photo basel, Switzerland...