Gradation (Photo paper work XXII 1983, 6
Seven Gelatin Silver Print on Agfa Brovira 111
41 1/3 x 3 13/24 in each piece
Unique
Muliple Optics,
Four Variations of the series 4.21, 1973
Multilens, chromogenic film, Photo montage
11.7 x 9.4 in in a 16 x 20 in. frame
Unique
Polarizations, 1965
(cliche Cellophan Series 6-6,)
Seventen light graphic work
Vintage, printed in 1965
9 x 11 in. each
Unique
Reversal Processing, 1981
Program XIV 1981,1-11
Luminogram #1
16 x 12 in.
Ed. of 3
Reversal Processing, 1981
Program XIV 1981,1-11
Luminogram #2
16 x 12 in.
Ed. of 3
Four Pinhole Structures from the series 3.8.14. 1973, Table # 6, 1973, printed in 1975
Gelatin Silver Print
20 x 20 in.
Ed. of 2
Pinhole Structure 3.8.14 D 2.6,printed in 2008
Gelatin Silver Print
20 x 20 in.
Titled and Hand signed on the back
Unique
Pinhole Structure 3.8.14 D 7.3, 1973, printed in 1973
Gelatin Silver Print (Vintage)
24 x 20 in.
Number and hand signed on the back
Ed. 1 of 1
Program 3.9.1-9, 1967
Ensemble of Nine Gelatin Silver Baryta paper prints type 111
8 x 8 in each piece
Unique Ensemble
Pinhole Structure, 3.8.14.B 2.5, 1967, printed in 1975
Gelatin Silver Print
13.4 x 12.2 in.
Titled and Hand signed on the back
Ed. 2 of 2
Punching Form (Theme), 1965. Photogram on film.
Gelatin silver print,
Printed in 2019
11 x 14 in.
Ed. 3
Backside pencil signed, dated, titled
Variation 7-6, 1965
Vintage gelatin silver print, 11 x 9 in , framed in 16 x 20 in.
Ed. of 4
Backside pencil signed, dated, titled
Variation 7-11, 1965
Gelatin silver print, 60 x 50 cm.
Ed. 5 +2AP, printed in 2018
Backside pencil signed, dated, titled.
Mosaik, 1996 Computerarbeit # 120396.1
Eight photographs, 7 x 7 in each,
Digital Print
Backside pencil signed, dated, titled.
Luminogram, VII.1
From Series “Color Systems”, 1980
Pigment Glossy Print on Fujicolor
27.6 x 19.7 in
Ed. of 3
Luminogram, VII.10
From Series “Color Systems”, 1980
Pigment Glossy Print on Fujicolor
27.6 x 19.7 in
Ed. of 3
Luminogram, VII.9
From Series “Color Systems”, 1980
Pigment Glossy Print on Fujicolor
27.6 x 19.7 in
Ed. of 3
Luminogram, VII.12
From Series “Color Systems”, 1980
Pigment Glossy Print on Fujicolor
27.6 x 19.7 in
Ed. of 3
To Jäger, photography is not a reproductive process but a productive system. While pushing the boundaries of the medium in an almost performative manner, Jäger creates abstract geometric shapes representative of the techniques used. In 1968, Jäger developed the idea of Generative Photography, which in his words consists of “finding a new world inside the camera and trying to bring it out with a methodical, analytical system.” Jäger’s generative color work derives from the color spectrum and the refraction of white light. Whether analogical or digital, the work is not a representation of color but a reflection of it.
Jäger has been part of some of the most iconic computer art exhibitions of the 1960s, such as New Tendencies (1969) in Zagreb, Experiments in Art and Technology (1968) at the Brooklyn Museum in New York and the groundbreaking Generative Fotografie (1968) at the Kunsthaus Bielefeld in Germany. Gottfried Jäger’s work is currently featured in a major group exhibition at the Tate Modern in London, Shape of Light: 100 Years of Photography and Abstract Art until October 2018.
Gottfried Jäger’s work is held in the permanent collections of the George Eastman House, Rochester; the Sprengel Museum, Hannover; the Museum Ludwig, Cologne; the Ruppert Collection, Museum Würzburg; the Museum Folkwang, Essen; the Fotomuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich; the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg; and the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Centre Georges Pompidou and in several private collection in United States.
Gottfried Jäger (b. 1937, Burg) currently lives and works in Germany, where since 2002 he has served as the photography advisor for the Peter C. Ruppert Concrete Art Collection at the Museum Kulturspeicher Wurzburg.
Featuring work by James Bloom (b. 1975, United Kingdom) and Gottfried Jäger (b. 1937, Germany)
In the late 1960s, photographer and theorist Gottfried Jäger developed and coined the term generative photography. Using self-built, custom pinhole cameras, he produced photographs that reveal how light is captured within the camera itself, instead of an external subject. Jäger later described this approach as exploring a relationship between “light images,” photographs generated within the apparatus, and “data images,” aligning photographic practices with emerging ideas of systems art.
Created almost 60 years later, James Bloom worked with Jäger to create Contingent, made from a digitized dataset of the original pinhole photographs. Brightness and color in the image are reorganized as inputs into a geometric mesh—a grid of connected points. The program then reshapes this mesh based on the specific color values at each point. The red, green, and blue channels determine how the image evolves, transforming them into shifting bodies that appear to evaporate and reconstitute. By dematerializing the pure, photographic object into code before it rematerializes as generated light on the Media Wall, the work completes a cycle from light to data and back to light.
