Mysterious translucency

Achim Weinberg shows us the soul of plants and fruits in his photographs. His pictures show supposedly everyday botanical motifs such as grapes, berries or flower petals, but capture them in such a poetic, concentrated, luminous and sublime way that they appear like unseen, almost alien distillations of beauty. He not only removes the objects from their usual context and presents them as if they were the sole hero in their own universe, but also photographs them using a special »transillumination« process that makes them positively glow. But not only that, this technique also provides a view into the inner body of the plant, revealing the fragile transparency of the outer shell and making the central core visible, sometimes quite literally.

In the remarkable works of the artist, who was born in Roth, Germany, in 1969, flower petals appear as gently floating wings or proudly rising peacocks. Fruits are transformed into glowing luminous bodies, scorching embers, or they dissolve completely into apparent abstraction. The fascination of the works arises from the synthesis of an exploratory, analytical gaze that dissects the fruits and flowers with seemingly scientific precision by means of transillumination, opening up new insights for us, with a highly aesthetic presentation that seems to lovingly embrace the object of investigation. The resonance these works have received has been correspondingly high. The pictures of the artist, who now lives in Nuremberg, Germany, are regularly shown in numerous exhibitions, have already been honoured with several prizes and can be found in public collections such as the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlung (Bavarian State Painting Collection) and the Städtische Sammlung Schweinfurth (Schweinfurth City Collection).

More about the artist: Achim Weinberg's artist page