Barbara Probst
Encyclopedia
Barbara Probst is a photographer and contemporary artist, born in Munich
in 1964. She lives and works in New York
and Munich. Probst’s images use multiple points of view by employing as many as twelve cameras and tripods, arranged around the subject, to photograph multiple points of view captured in separate images but taken simultaneously with a single radio-controlled shutter release. "All of the images of a series present different views of the same place or event at the same moment." While traditional photography directs the viewer to see a single image, Probst’s sequences are composed of a series of separate, though related images incorporating multiple perspective of a single moment. Her photographs cause viewers to experience a shift in time while reconsidering their presence in physical space. "Barbara Probst embroils us in different possible interpretations; focusing on a specific moment in time… she directs our attention to the time before or after…" Her work disregards photography’s standard concept of “decisive moment,” and instead references cinema’s practice of multiple cameras to create movement and diversion.
Probst also questions how the history of photography has trained viewers. Probst guides viewers to go beyond their expectation that images have been altered in Photoshop or simply repeated. Along with artists like Uta Barth
and James Welling, Probst encourages viewers to doubt the truth associated with classic photography. She has consistently worked with the same group of actors over many years. Instead of creating a documentary, as would a photographer like Sally Mann
or Walker Evans
, Probst prevents viewers from reading her body of work as a continuous narrative.
She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, most recently at FRAC Brittany, Domaine de Kerguehennec, Bignan, France, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
, Madison, WI and the Museum of Contemporary Photography
, Chicago. Her work was featured at the Museum of Modern Art
, New York, in the 2006 “New Photography” exhibition. Her work is also included in the MOMA collection. Other solo exhibitions include Murray Guy, New York, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh and a midcareer survey at the Kunstverein Oldenburg, Germany; G Fine Art, Washington D.C.; Jessica Bradley Art+Projects, Toronto, Canada; Kuckei+Kuckei, Berlin; and Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich. She has had three solo exhibitions at Murray Guy Gallery in New York, most recently in 2009 featuring two new multi-paneled works, Exposure #55: Munich, Waisenhausstrasse 65, 01.17.08, 1:55 p.m and Exposure #56: N.Y.C., 428 Broome Street, 06.05.08, 1:42 pm.
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in 1964. She lives and works in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Munich. Probst’s images use multiple points of view by employing as many as twelve cameras and tripods, arranged around the subject, to photograph multiple points of view captured in separate images but taken simultaneously with a single radio-controlled shutter release. "All of the images of a series present different views of the same place or event at the same moment." While traditional photography directs the viewer to see a single image, Probst’s sequences are composed of a series of separate, though related images incorporating multiple perspective of a single moment. Her photographs cause viewers to experience a shift in time while reconsidering their presence in physical space. "Barbara Probst embroils us in different possible interpretations; focusing on a specific moment in time… she directs our attention to the time before or after…" Her work disregards photography’s standard concept of “decisive moment,” and instead references cinema’s practice of multiple cameras to create movement and diversion.
Probst also questions how the history of photography has trained viewers. Probst guides viewers to go beyond their expectation that images have been altered in Photoshop or simply repeated. Along with artists like Uta Barth
Uta Barth
Uta Barth is a contemporary photographer who lives and works in Los Angeles. Barth was a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in 2004-05....
and James Welling, Probst encourages viewers to doubt the truth associated with classic photography. She has consistently worked with the same group of actors over many years. Instead of creating a documentary, as would a photographer like Sally Mann
Sally Mann
Sally Mann is an American photographer, best known for her large black-and-white photographs—at first of her young children, then later of landscapes suggesting decay and death.-Early life and education:...
or Walker Evans
Walker Evans
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
, Probst prevents viewers from reading her body of work as a continuous narrative.
She has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, most recently at FRAC Brittany, Domaine de Kerguehennec, Bignan, France, Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
The Madison Museum of Contemporary Art — MMoCA, formerly known as the Madison Art Center, is an art museum located in Madison, Wisconsin. A three-story glass facade "icon" on the corner of State and Henry Streets serves as the museum's main staircase, as well as its architectural...
, Madison, WI and the Museum of Contemporary Photography
Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Museum of Contemporary Photography was founded in 1984 by Columbia College Chicago. It is well known for an active program and curating which discovers many emerging and mid-career artists...
, Chicago. Her work was featured at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New York, in the 2006 “New Photography” exhibition. Her work is also included in the MOMA collection. Other solo exhibitions include Murray Guy, New York, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh and a midcareer survey at the Kunstverein Oldenburg, Germany; G Fine Art, Washington D.C.; Jessica Bradley Art+Projects, Toronto, Canada; Kuckei+Kuckei, Berlin; and Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich. She has had three solo exhibitions at Murray Guy Gallery in New York, most recently in 2009 featuring two new multi-paneled works, Exposure #55: Munich, Waisenhausstrasse 65, 01.17.08, 1:55 p.m and Exposure #56: N.Y.C., 428 Broome Street, 06.05.08, 1:42 pm.
Selected bibliography
- Barbara Probst: Exposures, [monograph], Steidl-Verlag in cooperation with Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, 2007. ISBN 978-3-86521-392-1
- Hall, Emily. „Barbara Probst at Murray Guy Gallery“, ArtforumArtforumArtforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
summer 2009, p. 338/339 - http://www.camera-austria.at/zeitschrift.php?id=1078493231&mainsub=beitrag&bid=1079018486Braun, Reinhard. „Barbara Probst“ in Photo Art, published by ApertureApertureIn optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture of an optical system is the opening that determines the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. The aperture determines how collimated the admitted rays are,...
, New York; p. 346-349.] ISBN 978-1-59711-062-4 - Schessl, Stefan. „Back to The Beginning, On Barbara Probst´s Photographic Series“, solo show catalogue published by Kunstverein Cuxhaven, Cuxhaven, Germany, 2002