The work of Tamara Horáková and Ewald Maurer exemplifies the developments that led to the establishment of photography as an artistic medium in the 1980s. Their early work is characterized by large-format canvases coated with liquid light, site-specific installations, and a media-critical reflection on political events. Central to their work are their contributions to conceptual and abstract photography, to the theoretical discourse on the “basics” of the medium, and their interpretation of the digital and analog characteristics of imaging processes. Their comprehensive and, in terms of its materiality, “opulent” work (Werner Fenz) has received numerous awards, been exhibited, published, and collected.
At FOTOHOF, Horáková and Maurer take us on a journey through the history of the medium: from Daguerre’s shoes to the era of high-tech laboratories shortly before their collapse to the look of the apps to which photography has shifted. 460 cm “Russian Ice” stand for the Russian invasion, and the “Face with Tears of Joy” mocks the essence of photography in the age of AI.