Quotes by
Andreas Gursky

For me, vision is an intelligent form of thought.

Space is very important for me but in a more abstract way, I think. Maybe to try to understand not just that we are living in a certain building or in a certain location, but to become aware that we are living on a planet that is going at enormous speed through the universe.

A word is worth a thousand images.

Paradoxically, this view of the Rhine cannot be obtained in situ; a fictitious construction was required to provide an accurate image of a modern river.

I stand at a distance, like a person who comes from another world.

We are alone on this planet. It’s not a choice. Here we are. This is what everyone has to deal with.

Any claims on the truth in my pictures are only to be answered in the sense that a particular event did in fact happen and did take place in the here and now.

Try to understand not just that we are living in a certain building or in a certain location, but to become aware that we are living on a planet that is going at enormous speed through the universe. For me it’s more a synonym. I read a picture not for what’s really going on there, I read it more for what is going on in our world generally.

Since the photographic medium has been digitized, a fixed definition of the term “photography” has become impossible.

In retrospect I can see that my desire to create abstractions has become more and more radical. Art should not be delivering a report on reality, but should be looking at what’s behind something.

I read a picture not for what’s really going on there, I read it more for what is going on in our world generally.

My preference for clear structures [within my photographic practice] is the result of my desire, perhaps illusory, to keep track of things and maintain my grip on the world.

I believe that there’s also a certain form of abstraction in my early landscapes: for example, I often show human figures from behind and thus the landscape as observed “through” a second lens.

My pictures really are becoming increasingly formal and abstract. A visual structure appears to dominate the real events shown in my pictures. I subjugate the real situation to my artistic concept of the picture.