Jeff Wall

Jeff Wall – The artist takes his time with his photo compositions

Jeff Wall was born in Vancouver, British Columbia on 29 September 1946. He graduated from studies in art history at the University of British Columbia with a Master of Arts, and after a three-year research residency at the University of London, took on a position as lecturer there in 1974. Jeff Wall undertook his first artistic steps at the end of the 1960s in the field of photography. Despite the great number of colour and black and white pictures he produced, they cannot be ordered into groups or series; each photograph is much more an individual composition, a unique artwork which stands alone. The artist draws inspiration from the paintings and sculptures of other artists from all eras and from novels which he translates into elaborately choreographed settings, for which he often enlists the help of a whole crew of select collaborators. Jeff Wall takes his time for his photographs; in the course of his career, he has published just 166 pictures to date. 

Constructed photographic reality in the context of fine art

Jeff Wall has driven photography to a new level with his meticulous work, and thus had a lasting influence on the artworld’s view of the medium. The unique situations which the artist preserves in the picture have not developed spontaneously, but are the result of an intensive phase of conception and construction. In doing so, Jeff Wall has pushed photography nearer to the fine arts of painting and sculpture, especially as he does not shy away from the digital processing of the pictures with modern computer techniques. At first glance, the depicted motifs do not always reflect the immense effort the photographer has taken. Often it looks as of Jeff Wall has simply captured an ordinary everyday event with the camera. Several of Wall’s pictures are seen as iconic masterpieces of photography, including pictures which draw on a novel by Ralph Ellison, a sculpture by Auguste Rodin and a painting by Eugène Delacroix. 

Control of the image; motion pictures with a single frame

Jeff Wall does not seek simply the aesthetic qualities in his pictures, but addresses very concrete questions that he tries to resolve with visual means. His images are often reminiscent of cinema films that are comprised of only a single frame. The light box is an important stylistic devise for Jeff Wall, one which he sees as the ideal form of presentation for his pictures. He openly makes reference to Dan Flavin, for whose art fluorescent tubes play a key role. Control is important for the artist; as a photographer, he takes the design of his pictures as seriously as a painter, sculptor, writer or film director. He has taken part in Documenta in Kassel four times since 972, and has shown in museums and galleries in Frankfurt, Munich, Basel, New York, Berlin, Amsterdam and London.