This week we’re looking at the studio space of photographer Wolfgang Tillmans. Tillmans was born in Germany and currently lives and works in London. He was awarded the Turner Prize in 2000.  

His studio, pictured here, looks quite expansive. It looks as though Tillmans is busy organizing some works on the floor. I like the little detail of the coffee cup and the pen near the artist’s feet – definitely a sign of some creation happening! At the far end of the room are some tables, strewn with photographs and paper, but aside from this the space is quite sparse. The far wall is lined with windows that seem to do a good job of letting in natural light, though the studio is also equipped with bright fluorescents. Those big windows remind me of the painting studio of a couple of our own artists!

 I also like how Tilmans has pinned photographs up all over the walls with no apparent rhyme or reason – at all different heights, a few on the walls, a few circling around a support pillar -  perhaps he’s trying to decide the best placement for photos in an upcoming exhibition. I think this studio would be great for working on multiple projects at once – the sheer amount of space would allow the artist to step faraway from a work and not have to look at it for a while.

Like some of our website abstract photographers, Tillmans is known for both abstract and representational photographs. Even his representational works often seem to have an element of abstraction in them, deconstructing the subject matter into its formal aspects. He often tapes and pins photographs directly to the wall, revealing a sense that the subject of the photograph is more important than the photograph as a physical object. 

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