WOLFGANG TILLMANS
Photographer
The Turner Prize-winning German photographer’s aesthetic precedes him. His stark, documentarian style and inventive gallery staging have become one of a handful of styles rigorously replicated in art schools across the country—the highest compliment a nascent image-maker could offer.
ARE PEOPLE EVER STARSTRUCK BY YOU? Very occasionally, but I’m good at not noticing it.
WHEN YOU WERE LITTLE, WHAT WERE YOU KNOWN FOR? My obsession with astronomy.
WHAT’S ONE BOOK, WORK OF ART, OR FILM THAT GOT YOU THROUGH AN IMPORTANT MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE? The Rainer Werner Fassbinder retrospective at the British Film Institute in London was enlightening—I returned several times a week with friends to the same place.
“I got the idea for the new book, 'Things Matter / Dinge Zählen,' which accompanies my show in Dresden, while leaving the studio.”
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SURPRISED YOURSELF IN YOUR PRACTICE? I got the idea for the new book, Things Matter / Dinge Zählen, which accompanies my show in Dresden, while leaving the studio. I worked all weekend and on Monday I presented a finished 312-page PDF. What surprised me is that two months later, when the book was about to go to press, I realized that I hadn’t reworked 75 percent of the original pages. I still liked the collages as much as I did that first weekend.
WHO DO YOU CALL THE MOST? My partner, Olly
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