Big Tank IV

About Hiepler & Brunier

Vessels In the days of Columbus and Vespucci, ships were used for explorative journeys. These days, they have largely come to be symbols of the global trade of consumer goods. In 2013, 53,000 cargo ships transported 9.5 billion tons of… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Vessels

In the days of Columbus and Vespucci, ships were used for explorative journeys. These days, they have largely come to be symbols of the global trade of consumer goods. In 2013, 53,000 cargo ships transported 9.5 billion tons of freight on the world’s oceans, completely unseen by most people. 90% of the goods we buy have crossed an ocean on a ship at least once.

Few people realize how diverse these cargo ships – the motors of the modern globalized world – can be. In a very objective fashion, David Hiepler and Fritz Brunier photograph merchant vessels from every nation, boats of every size, shape, color, make and model, visualizing this aspect of consumerism.

David Hiepler, Fritz Brunier

Applied calmness

David Hiepler (*1969) and Fritz Brunier (*1972) find their motives by making detours, interrupting their drives and taking sideways. Somewhere off the travelled routes they take the time to track down curious sights and wait for the right light.

The works of the award-winning photographers, who together trained at the Berlin Lette-Foundation and have been working together for one decade, are dedicated to prosaic handwriting, thus remembering of modern objective photography. And yet these works still transport the amazed look that devolves even to the viewer. Whether confronted with the magnificence of a desert or the elegance of a skyline, the pattern of skyscrapers and cottages or the arbitrary course of a road, the duo Hiepler/Brunier has preserved a laconic watchfullness. One of the effects being slight amusement over the subtle absurdities of our world.

Their pictures, including the most majestic panoramas, emit serenity, something light in their pastell coloration and invite the viewer over and again to lose himself. "To lose orientation from time to time is nice", states David Hiepler in his typical sober tone, and Fritz Brunier continues by reporting on the inspiring cooperation of the two photographers that developed dialogically and lead to that unobtrusive sobriety their works are known for. "Symmetry bores us", he says, "we want to avoid simple compositions and therefore prefer to move our objects away from the center for example". The composure the photographers radiate can be found in their works. It filters through and relaxes. Perhaps this is exactly what makes them successfull, overlaping art and commerce, in both realms.


Big Fish, Small Fish

The eye-catcher of this image is clear, but the small yellow fish are also worth notice. Whoever can summon up the courage to go for a swim with the largest known fish in the world is a welcome guest at the aquarium in Georgia, USA. At the aquarium you can actually dive with the harmless giants of the tropical seas. Whether Hiepler and Brunier went so far is not known. Their exterior view of the "Big Tank" gives that impression all the same. A whale shark, by the way, can become close to fourteen-feet long and up to 100 years old.

VITA

David Hiepler was born in 1969 in Lank-Latum, Germany and grew up in Düsseldorf and Basel. Fritz Brunier was born in 1972 in Krumbach, Germany and grew up in Bad Wörishofen, Germany. Both photographers studied the art at the Lette Verein. They have been working together under the name Hiepler and Brunier since 1996. They have exhibited their work in Germany, Switzerland, Paris, Shenjang, St. Petersburg, and Edinburgh.

Exhibitions

2019		NL1.1, Neue Langeweile, Voies off, Les Rencontres d'Arles, Arles, France
2016		ninety percent of everything, Pavlov's Dog Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2014		Der zweite Blick / the second viewing, Aspekte Galerie im Gasteig, München; Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen, Germany
2013		industrious, poho art gallery, Dalian, China Body of Work, Pingyao international Photography Festival, Pingyao, China Industrious, national industry museum, Shenyang, China Der zweite Blick / the second viewing, deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt; f75 Fotogalerie, Stuttgart, Germany Die Wartenden / the waiting, 8. Wiesbadener Fototage, Germany stillgestellt / immobilized, Designerwerkschau, München; Galerie f75, Stuttgart; Schmiede-Raum für Fotografie, Hamburg, Germany
2012		Common Ground, La Biennale di Venezia, Italy
2011		Industrious, Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
2008		Galerie Kunstbureau, Paris, France
2007		SAM, Schweizer Architekturmuseum, Basel,Switzerland
2006		Zeche Zollverein, Essen, Germany
		Monat der Fotografie, Zadig, Berlin, Germany
2003		Projektraum Auguststraße, Berlin, Germany
		Designmai, Deckadresse, Germany
		Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
2001		Junge Fotografie, Focus Berlin, Stuttgart, Germany
2000		opaque, Berlin, Germany
1998		Heremitage, St. Petersburg, Russia
		Photokina, Köln, Germany
		Nikon Gallerie, Zürich, Switzerland
1997		Aedes East, Berlin, Germany
		Intern. festival of architecture and design, Edinburgh, UK
		Haus des Architekten, Stuttgart, Germany
		Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany