“What art does — maybe what it does most completely — is tell us, make us feel that what we think we know, we don’t. There are whole worlds around us that we’ve never glimpsed.” Greil Marcus — Monday March 9th — —

The idea is to die young as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu — Monday March 9th — —

I love listening. It is one of the only spaces where you can be still and moved at the same time. — Nayyirah Waheed — Monday March 9th — —

Christoph Morlinghaus

Although he has been having an impact with his photographic eye for quite some years, we only became familiar with the absolutely stunning work of German photographer Christoph Morlinghaus recently. The buildings which become the mysterious subjects of Morlinghaus’s isolated images are often-times the crowns of modernist architecture. Whether it are the American churches in his ongoing critically acclaimed series ‘Form/Faith’, factory buildings or hotels. Beyond the theme of modernism and questioning its paradigms, Morlinghaus’s work investigates how form gives expression to new and old interpretations of faith, from for instance the ghostly interiors of a Brutalist church to the superficiality of the famous Doha hotel. Seeping through the surfaces of the photographer’s impeccably crafted photographs is a profound and infectious irony that reveals, rather than creates, the uncanny presence of mortal consciousness inherent in the fissures of our modern human environment. His most recent series even move beyond just the structures and machines in the public sphere, into the highly aesthetic world of microchips and computer motherboards. We are highly inspired by Morlinghaus’s totally unique vision on the world around us.

As stated in an interview with Metropolis:

I always look for the best image, documentation does not really interest me. I always try to condense the essence of a building and the experience of light and space into one single image. Shooting 8×10” film also forces me to do that.

Christoph Morlinghaus is a German photographer now based in New York. He studied at the Fachhochschule Dortmund, School of Photography & Design. In 1994 he received the Reinhard Wolf award and his work was included at the same exhibition in the Museum of Art & Commerce, Hamburg. Since then Christoph has gone on to work on prestigious international advertising campaigns, his clients including Lufthansa, British Airways, IBM, Lexus, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Sony Playstation, Audi, Volkswagon and Nike.

The photographer had his first solo exhibition at Roebling Hall Gallery, Brooklyn, in 2004, which he returned to with his solo show ‘Form/Faith’ in 2007. In 2013 he showed in Security Building Cu1 in Miami with his third solo show named ‘Morlinghaus, Places Where I Did Time’. Group exhibitions he has participated in include An Index For Indoctrination, FIFI Projects, Monterrey, Mexico, (2009) and Crown of the Lost New York, USA, (2009), while awards he has received include a bronze at the Eurobest awards in France (1996), a silver at the German Art Directors Club (1998), and merit awards from both the Association of photographers in London (2002) and from the Art Directors Club (2006).

I do not consider myself an architectural photographer. My interest is always changing and shifting. Basically my approach to landscapes is similar to shooting buildings. [My work is] meticulous, uncompromising, lonely. My ‘school’ is and always has been Otl Aicher.

For more information and incredible work by Morlinghaus see here.