About

Creating is fulfilling for me, images are a delight and photography a pleasure. Ever since finishing school in 1986 I am deeply engaged in photography and it still is deeply satisfying. In my work I am trying to explore the boundaries of the medium, landscapes and tranquility are topics of special interest to me. I am working from my base in southern germany, where I live withy family. My journeys send me traveling and bringing me back home again.

Statement

For me, photography is a pathway that suits my temperament, and my involvement with it is like a journey during which my horizon is constantly expanding. My work with the camera in these remarkable landscapes – especially at night and during the long exposure times – is conducted with a feeling of agreeable and hushed concentration. My serene composure is such that I hardly seem to be breathing, and I feel at ease and excited at the same time. My experience of these locations is often of a deeply satifying intensity. In my work I am exploring the boundaries of the medium.

Education

  • 1991 - 1994 | 3 Jahre Auslandsaufenthalt in San Francisco (US)
  • 1988 - 1995 | Studium Kommunikationsdesign/Fotografie FH Darmstadt (DE)

Institution (Work Experience)

  • 2010 | Lehrauftrag, Merz Akademie, Hochschule für Gestaltung (DE)
  • 2007 | Vertretungsprofessur für Fotografie, Hochschule Darmstadt (DE)
  • 2006 | Lehrauftrag, Merz Akademie, Hochschule für Gestaltung (DE)

Selected Awards

  • 2016 | Mars Award, Art Fair Turin (IT)
  • 2016 | Brita Kunstpreis (DE)
  • 2016 | Deutscher Fotobuchpreis Silber (DE)
  • 2015 | Nominierung Photographer of the Year, IPA Award (US)
  • 2015 | Europäischer Architkekturfotografiepreis, Auszeichnung (DE)
  • 2006 | Stiftung deutsche Buchkunst, Auszeichnung Stille Berge Buch (DE)
  • 2005| Nominierung Lead Awards
  • seit 2000 viele nationale und internationale Auszeichnungen von ADC, AOP, Sony world photography awards und diversen anderen

Selected Exhibitions/Publications

  • Ausstellungen / Exhibitions:
  • 2018 | Museum of Contemporary Art , Galaxy (CN)
  • 2018 | Museum of Contemporary Art, Sanya (CN)
  • 2017 | White Box Museum of Art, Beijing (CN)
  • 2017 | International Photography Art Festival, Shaanxi (CN)
  • 2016 | Istanbul Modern (TR)
  • 2016 | Mars, Milano (IT)
  • 2015 | World Art Museum, Peking (CN)
  • 2015 | ITO Project Space, Stuttgart (DE)
  • 2015 | Vorarlberg Museum (AT)
  • 2015 | Nederlands Fotomuseum (NL)
  • 2014 | Kunstmuseum Stuttgart (DE)
  • 2013 | Pinakothek der Moderne, München (DE)
  • 2012 | Kunsthaus, Wiesbaden (DE)
  • 2011 | Tirol Panorama, Innsbruck ( AT)
  • 2009 | Osthaus Museum, Hagen (DE)
  • 2006 | Visual Gallery, Photokina, Köln (DE)
  • 2004 | Alpines Museum, München (DE)
  • Publikationen / Publications:
  • 2011 | Michael Schnabel 2001-2010, Monografie
  • 2004 | Stille Berge , Michael Schnabel, Monografie

Personal Website

http://www.michaelschnabel.com

Works

Michael Schnabel | Stille Berge (2003 - 2010)

Michael Schnabel | Stille Berge (2003 - 2010)

Photographing the Alps in my own vision was a creative process that developed over years. One day – or night rather – it clicked. Under the dark skies I found the tranquility that the Alps of today lack during the day. The night and its silence gives the mountains a sublimity, feeling of raw creation and aloofness that I strived to capture in my work. Exposure times werea bout and hour.

Format:

Photo / Video

Michael Schnabel | Weisses Land (2008 - 2009)

Michael Schnabel | Weisses Land (2008 - 2009)

In these raw virgin landscapes I found tranquility, not only at night, but also during the day. This allowed me to work during the day. These locations have a clarity and depth that one can feel. This body of work is a subjective image of these awe-inspiring natural spaces where I am – once again – experimenting with the boundaries of the photography as they relate to paintings or works on paper which is, if at all probably only noticeable in the original.

Format:

Photo / Video

Michael Schnabel | Gehege (2004)

Michael Schnabel | Gehege (2004)

These rooms have an astonishing ambivalence and beauty in terms of their purpose. I followed this one. The animals are deliberately excluded. The culture of the zoos is changing, the rooms as they are shown here are more and more replaced by large open spaces with retreat possibilities for the animals.

Format:

Photo / Video

Michael Schnabel | Der Himmel über Tirol (2018)

Michael Schnabel | Der Himmel über Tirol (2018)

Light installation with 4 images, site-specific, Museum Kitzbuehel 2018 The works in this space are a virtual shop window to the outside world and were made specially for this exhibition. I give a view of the landscape surrounding the museum, projected inward by a Camera Obscura. It is a very subjective view, a view full of longing, that creates images with a painterly quality and a subtle attractiveness. The images in the installation change quickly or more subtly, depending on the weather and light situation. The space becomes brighter or darker entirely based on the conditions outdoor. These photographs, true „paintings with light“, are perhaps most beautiful in sunny, cloudy, windy moments.

Format:

Photo / Video