‘The photograph is not transparent; it is opaque’, says German-born photographer Anne Kathrin Schuhmann. ‘The only thing you can do is look at it. In my work I examine the potential and limits of photographic representation. There are disparate subjects and photographic techniques, without legible narratives, leading to various ways of reading that unfold new sensibilities. I want to leave the image open, without conclusion or definition’. In Gummibaum I & II, two photographs of the same household rubber-plant against a blank background form an intriguing pair. In the first image, the plant is vivid green as if lit by bright daylight; in the second, the background dims from off-white to a subdued grey, and the leaves’ polished gleam is made more striking by their darkness. The photographs are identical apart from the lighting, calling our attention to the subtlest of shifts between the two, and opening up narratives suggested by their difference. Is what we are seeing simply the passage of time, the sun having dipped below the horizon? Or has the lighting been artificially altered in the studio? Perhaps a protagonist has appeared outside the picture, their shadow falling across what we can see. The photograph, after all, is just printed colour and form, and can only reveal so much.
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