Alfons Alt

The photographic praxis developed by Alfons Alt has to do as much with a precise and scientific knowledge of processes of revelation as with a certain form of alchemy (with all the magical character that this term may embrace). The so-called "resinotype" technique which he uses combines the principles whereby the photograph appears with those of painting using pigments which will more or less colour in areas previously rendered photosensitive. This pigmentary (non-silver) photographic procedure enables him to see the image beyond just the moment of the shot, by way of his work on the preparation of the medium as well as during the moment of revelation itself. Alfons Alt's works are filled with animals, nature, mythology, and urban places. This fascination with the biological and its organization pulls him into a kind of endless inventory, a subjective and perceptible classification of the world in which termite hills cohabit with famous architectural gestures, where invasive plants have the appearance of monuments, and where New York "fauna" is akin to that of Pakistan. Everything here is caught, like a parcel of the living world pinned to the wall. Translated Simon Pleasance