Statement

I use scenic photography as visual criticism of pictorial phenomena of different eras. The statement of Paul Virilio: "There is no freedom without the intelligence of perception" (2000) became my credo. Already while still living in East Berlin, I developed scenic photographs as a parallel world opposed to the unconditional adaptation the GDR nomenklatura demanded from the citizens. My images densely visualize themes such as loneliness, returning home, injury and waste. I drew my inspiration from artists like Michelangelo, Baldung Grien, Lucas Cranach, da Vinci, Musil and W. Eugene Smith. In my search for the genius loci, I understand urban places as playgrounds for the performers of my “photo theatre". T.O. Immisch, head of the photographic collection of the Moritzburg Art Museum, Halle, aptly described my working method in 2003: "What Leupold has achieved and what constitutes his photographic art is attempted to be summarized in three polar tensions between statics and dynamics, between contemplation and narration, between joke and symbol. In the pictures these dimensions and categories do not fall apart, but merge partially or completely." With several documentary films I try to show fates that receive too little publicity. Since 2007 I have been sharing my findings with students of the University of Applied Sciences Europe Berlin, whose department of Art&Design I co-founded.