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Artist Biography

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Julian Faulhaber

German artist Julian Faulhaber (b. 1975) is the epitome of the postmodern photographer, following the medium's controversial depths in order to bring to light its dual, seemingly contradictory abilities: both to record the truth accurately and authentically, and to manipulate and misconstrue the world it captures. In his vibrant, pristine compositions, saturated colors and an almost hallucinogenic clarity of focus lend such real-life, locales such as a gas station or a commercial conference room the uncanny appearance of a computer generated rendering.

Wryly toeing the line between reality and artifice, Faulhaber explores photography's power to distort, rendering actual objects and settings in a way that may be interpreted as ambiguous or constructed. Indeed, his work places him squarely within the trajectory of his predecessors, from the tradition of German photography, which considers the investigation of architectural forms to be important social commentary and includes Albert Renger-Patsch, Bernd and Hilla Becher, and Andreas Gursky, to Laurie Simmons, all of whom have spent the decades since the medium's invention grappling with its potential. Initially, in fact, the art world celebrated photography's capacity for “truthful” representation; but with time and the development of new technologies, their understanding of its power evolved, and they began to harness and explore its presumed “accuracy” with the express intention of turning it around on itself.

With their surreal sheen, bright colors, and perplexingly toy-like qualities, Faulhaber's images appear to bridge abstraction and documentation, existing as some kind of hybrid between the two. Much in the vein of famed German photographer Thomas Demand, who crafts meticulous miniature sets entirely from paper and then photographs them in order to evoke real life locations, Faulhaber, too, plays with our human ability to distinguish the real from the fake. Faulhaber photographs spaces “in the brief poignant moment of perfection between their completion by the contractors and the arrival of the first users.” Devoid of human presence, the images he creates represent what he describes as “aggregations of spotlessness,” and they appear at first glance too perfect, to spare, to sterile, to be anything other than fabrication. But, in yet another reversal of expectations, they are in fact absolutely true to life, depicting actual places as they exist in the world, they have never been manipulated during postproduction. In this way, the artist's images express an inhuman, almost dystopian aspect of the environments we create for ourselves, suggesting the impersonal nature of modern existence.

Julian Faulhaber was born in Würzburg, Germany and studied photography at the University for Photography in Dortmund, Germany. He made his New York debut in the First New York Photo Festival in DUMBO in Chisel, curated in by Kathy Ryan. Ryan, director of photography for The New York Times Magazine has commissioned Faulhaber several times, in New York, Denmark and Spain. He has had solo gallery exhibitions in New York, Frankfurt and Dresden and has been the recipient of a number of awards in Europe, including Reinhart-Wolf-Preis 2006 and a nomination for the ING Real Photography Award, for which he was a finalist in 2008.

Faulhaber’s has been acquired and is the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where his work has exhibited alongside Gregory Crewdson, David Levinthal, Vik Muniz, and Stephen Shore in the critically acclaimed exhibition Reality Check. His works are also in the permanent collections of the Princeton University Art Museum, the Harvard Art Museum, DZ Bank AG, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and ING, The Netherlands, among others.
 

Exhibitions

Great Photographs: Scape

Ansel Adams, Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Jeff Bark, James Casebere, Elger Esser, Julian Faulhaber, Pierre Gonnord, William Hentry Jackson, Patrick Jacobs, Vik Muniz, Nick Knight, Koyo Okada, Clifford Ross, Joel Sternfeld, And Albert Watson
Jun 14 - Jul 20, 2012

Julian Faulhaber

Parcel (Field of Tulips)
Jul 07 - Aug 19, 2011

Julian Faulhaber

Lowdensitypolyethylene
May 06 - Jun 26, 2010

Julian Faulhaber

Lowdensitypolyethylene
Oct 30 - Dec 13, 2008

Press

It's Nice That

Stunning structures shot by photographer Julian Faulhaber
Nov 14, 2014

DAMN MAGAZINE

LAND OF TULIPS: THIS MUST BE HOLLAND
Jul 01, 2011

The New York Times Magazine

BLOOM AND BUST
May 15, 2011

The Morning News

Julian Faulhaber
Jul 12, 2010

The New Yorker

GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN: JULIAN FAULHABER
Jun 07, 2010

Conscientious

REVIEW: JULIAN FAULHABER AT HASTED HUNT KRAEUTLER
May 24, 2010

the architects newspaper

Andreas Gefeller
May 19, 2010

New York Magazine

Julian Faulhaber
May 10, 2010

Vulture

See Julian Faulhaber’s Eerily Pristine Photos of New Construction
May 06, 2010

ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Lowdensitypolyethylene
May 01, 2010

ArtDaily

EXHIBITION OF NEW PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIAN FAULHABER AT HASTED HUNT KRAEUTLER
Apr 27, 2010

FOAM

JULIAN FAULHABER
Sep 01, 2009

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ART CRITICS HONG KONG

NEW PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIAN FAULHABER
May 30, 2009

DAMnation

ASEPTIC WORLD: JULIAN FAULHABER: THE UNTOUCHABLE
Apr 01, 2009

PDN

30 UNDER 30: JULIAN FAULHABER
Mar 01, 2009

The New Yorker

JULIAN FAULHABER: REALITY CHECK AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Dec 22, 2008

The New Yorker

Julian Faulhaber
Dec 02, 2008

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Reality Check: Truth and Illusion in Contemporary Photography
Nov 04, 2008

Departures

FACES OF PHOTOGRAPHY NOW- EIGHT UNDER 40: JULIAN FAULHABER
Nov 01, 2008

Art Forum

Julian Faulhaber
Aug 01, 2007

News

Julian Faulhaber

Exhibits "Corona" at L.A. Galerie in Frankfurt, Germany
Jan 31, 2015

Julian Faulhaber

Exhibits, "Catalogue" at Walzwerk Null in Duesseldorf
Jan 15, 2015

Julian Faulhaber

Julian Faulhaber's work in the Cora Museum, "The Hidden Picture"
Aug 27, 2014

Julian Faulhaber

Lowdensitypolyethylene II, Artist's reception
May 06, 2010