In Cuxhaven at the North Sea dominated by wind and water... Today I live and work in the border triangle Germany / France / Switzerland between Freiburg and Basel/Switzerland. I work alone and collaborate with other artists on equal terms. I am an "exhibition artist". The works have been shown in over 130 national and international exhibitions. I like exhibition venues that place my paintings in a different context.
Background Sometimes it is the small things that have a lasting influence. For me one such thing was the master key of the HBK Braunschweig, which I was granted as a tutor. The key not only opened the door to the darkroom, behind which excessive experiments with photo-chemicals took place at nights, but also the door to a surreal world of images. The second lucky coincidence was the encounter with the Swiss Peter Olpe. In his atelier a pinhole camera was manufactured according to my preferences. Working method For me it is important how my pictures are created. I work without digital manipulation. The experiments of the darkroom are continued in the pinhole camera. Reality is alienated, potentiated, multiplied, and transforms itself into seemingly poetic images. Temporal aspects (present with a view to the future) can also be successively brought onto the roll film. The transport of the camera can enable a single photo in roll film length. Today's digital exposure processes make it possible to completely enlarge the film in full length and respectable size. This is significant for my work. These narrow, overlong images cannot be displayed either on the net or in book form.
A shortened, one-page CV at the beginning and a detailed CV, especially for interested people, curators and collectors. The latter is illustrated and includes explanations of series and individual pictures. (German)
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PDF Presentation
Looking back, combinations of individual pictures appear in the exhibitions. They are single pictures, not diptychs, nor triptychs. Some pictures tell a story by themselves. Other pictures only tell a story together. 1 Series: The third eye or the devil knows what's up there, 2007 "One" and "Two", 19,6 x 19,6 inch 2 "From the fisherman and his wife II", 2004, 76 x 98,5 inch - 2005, sedus, Waldshut (DE) - 2010, Concert Gallery Maison 44, Basel (CH) - 2007, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin (DE) 3 "The Light", Protestant Church Schallbach, 2013, each 19,6 x 19,6 inch 4 "Thoughts learn to fly", Evangelical Church Opfingen (DE), 2006, 39,4 x 39,4 inch
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Photo / Video
A clear location is not sought here. The reflection of reality goes through a metamorphosis and turns out to be the unreal. A landscape full of dreams - sometimes also full of nightmares. Nothing can be grasped – nothing is really stable. Further information to series and single pictures in the CV.
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Photo / Video
2006 | ‘Dash‘, Forum, Sparkasse Lörrach-Rhf., Lörrach (DE) 2005 | ‘Above the clouds I-III’, high-rise building, Chesterplatz, Lörrach (DE) 2004 | ‘Stranded’, bar, Burghof Lörrach, bis 2008 (DE) 1998 | 'purposefully I+ II', payphone, Burghof Lörrach (DE)
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Project with the photographer David Heke, Chester (GB) Films are exposed and sent to each other like postcards and exposed again. No one knows what the other has photographed. Heke works in black and white with Hasselblad, Böttcher in colour with the pinhole camera. Two photographers, two nationalities, man and woman - very thrilling, intuitive and not so different at all.
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Photo / Video
