Kilian Breier (1931–2011) is one of Germany’s most important experimental art photographers of the post-war period. The exhibition at the Alfred Ehrhardt Foundation presents an exemplary collection of Breier’s works covering his creative process from the representational to the abstract. The works on view offer insight into the art photographer’s fascinating visual world, which evolved from the 1950s to the 1980s from natural materials such as plants and trees.

Breier was a photography professor at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts. His work is characterized by an innovative approach to photography based on the ideas of Concrete Art and the Zero Group. Through experimentation, Breier strove toward the ‘zero point’ of visualization. From his first works, which were dominated by structure, contrast, and gradations of light and shadow, he gradually developed autonomous images without the camera by reworking the negative or using photo collage, photogram, or photochemical processes.

In collaboration with the estate of Kilian Breier.