Over the past two decades, Jochen Lempert has drawn from his personal archive of hundreds of images to create photographic installations that immerse the viewer in a field of poetic visual associations. Lempert’s images of the natural world – ocean waves, plants, birds, insects, reptiles, seashells, and taxidermied specimens from natural history museums – are made through a variety of experimental and traditional processes that, to a certain extent, mimic the inherent order and randomness of the natural world itself.
While some of his photographs are taken with a 35mm camera from scientific research vessels in the North Sea or in the urban environment of his hometown of Hamburg, Germany, many are made through camera-less processes. He creates photograms by lying natural specimens directly on photographic paper.
Published retrospectively after Jochen Lempert’s major survey exhibition at Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis, 3 February – 31 March 2012.