"Demand's photographs capture moments that refer to a greater event, a before and after. An abyss might me concealed behind each door and every blind window. Demand's sites evoke scenes and stories in our imagination..."
-Susanne Gaensheimer
Gaensheimer, S. (2002). "Second-Hand Experience".
Thomas Demand, 70-74.
Susanne Gaensheimer's essay, which accompanies a collection of Thomas Demand's artwork, expresses the the essence of the artist's photography, and also ties in to issues pertaining to my own work. Demand, whose final product is not unlike that of James Casebere, photographs a constructed model based upon a charged, pre-existing image. The viewer is thus several degrees removed from the actual scene-which is itself a representation. Demand gives us a specific view of each scene and every object within the photos are essential to its interpretation. Various parts in the compositions lead the viewer towards estimations of the location's significance. We are caught in between moments in his fabricated scenes; as the aforementioned quotation makes clear, the viewer can sense the importance of what has just occurred or will still come. Perhaps it is the overall stillness that pervades in his photographs that suggests a disruption is imminent. The artificiality of the scene lends to the tension as well; the artist must have recreated these scenes for some reason.
This essay has helped to elucidate some of the issues that I have been working out with my own photography. It eloquently addresses the need to envision what has occurred in the scenes that Demand presents us and speaks about the layers of recreation that he plays with.
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