Photo Basel

Switzerland’s first and only international art fair for fine-art photography, ‘photo basel’, once again, opened its doors to an exciting, awe-inspiring collection of unique works of photographic art. For six days, during ART BASEL, photography aficionados from all over the world flocked to Basel’s Volkshaus to celebrate fine-art photography’s magical capacity to transcend its technical limitations.

‘photo basel’ generously offered Centrepoint members three free guided-tours, each focusing on a different selection of exhibitors. These animated, fast-food introductions to the variety of artistic expression within art-photography, both contemporary and classical, were hypnotically compelling: quintessential summaries drawn from a corpus of 40 international galleries, more than 450 works and 150 artists. The personal, passionate enthusiasm of the gallerists and the photographers was contagious as they engaged with us, edifying our curiosity. The personalities curating this photo fair made the event and its artworks an unforgettable experience: This is the privilege of “a boutique-fair with character”^[1], a description coined by Sven Eisenhut, the founder and director of photo basel.       

Our tour was led by Julie Marbot, Project Manager, photo basel. From all the beckoning visual sensors surrounding us she grounded us with her friendly welcome, specialist knowledge and clarity. I will focus here on a few works from our visit that typify the extensiveness of fine-art photography.

Photographer Chris Tille explores epistemology (study of the theory/nature of knowledge) based on original pre-rational, emotional responses to perceptions using neurological research technology, The resulting data are then scientifically encoded/charted as colour, and visualized in his ‘ECOCROME’ pictures. Invisible, unconscious mental processes are made manifest to the conscious eye. This physiology of aesthetics poses a circular pattern of apprehension: visual exposures to colour induce brainwave responses that in turn indicate emotional states associated with colour spectrograms. His luminous multi-coloured electronically lit abstract canvasses are EEG (Electroencephalograph) recordings of a momentary visual experience, whereby the artist-viewer’s internal (pre-verbal) experience is manifested visually. To perform this production of fine-art photography, he wears headgear using electrodes.

Lotte Ekkel (Newhouse Gallery – Amsterdam, The Netherlands) presented beautifully tranquil photographs focused on the juxtaposition of interior and exterior scapes, the dark interiors versus illuminated exteriors, both catching a fragmentary, transitory moment of perception in time and space of the artist and for the viewer: an existential frame story.

In essay, Thought Trails, Jackie Mulder, writes about “how the brain works when we let our minds wander…”, between time zones; how seemingly arbitrary it is in its choice of direction; how creative it is in associating unexpected thoughts and associating them to make new connections. She draws threads with a needle through the mulberry-paper prints of her ‘archaic’ photographs.

In a work by Nicholas Winter, with texts by George Ricci (Galerie Monika Wertheimer, Oberwil, Baselland, Switzerland), titled “irepola‘” Tresor, Treasure, Winter encloses a metal disk imprinted with an “historic” photograph inside an open “travel case”. The safe is like a suitcase, that can be opened or shut, carrying the past in visual memories through time. It also contains a written record, a sentimental poetic note, depicting a souvenir, written by his co-artist George Ricci.

This short selection of fine-art photographs illustrates the important role that the workings of the human mind play in the production and interpretation of this new art form. The content of the works elicits open never-ending discussions about life, the psyche, the Self and the Other; between Artist, Object, Viewer.

Centrepoint and its photography enthusiasts wish to thank Julie Marbot, Project Manager, photo basel, for guiding us on a most interesting, sponsored tour of this year’s exhibition. She introduced us to a selection of gallerists who gave us lively, informative summaries of their artists’ distinctive missions, techniques and use of media.

Text by Hermione Moser

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[1] (Louise/arttourist.com/2026—www.photo-basel.com)