Hornung, Georg

Georg Hornung, Weiden, Germany

1951
born in Glauchau / Saxony

1969 - 1975 Leipzig
A-levels, apprenticeship as a gardener
scientific studies at the University of Leipzig, graduation as a graduate chemist
beginning of autodidactic artistic development

1975 - 1981 Glauchau (Saxony)
photographs, drawings, prints
                     
1981 - 1989 Meissen
Head of department for printing technology and reproduction in the Scientific-Technical Enterprise Ceramics Meissen
Member of the Association of Visual Artists of the GDR [VBK].  
experimental photographic works, photomontages, serial photographic works,
Cultural Academy Rudolstadt: further training as course leader for photography

February 1989: expatriation from the GDR
                 
since 1989 Weiden/Opf.
Member of the Professional Association of Visual Artists [BBK].
freelance work as photographer
photo-experimental picture series, analog and digital photo art
photo-artistic company commissions
since 2004: art project virtual installations

since 2010 Berlin / Weiden

continuation of the project Virtual Installations
project Experimental Morphology (3D objects)
georg-hornung.com

Lecturer for digital image editing (GIMP, Photoshop)
and 3D design (Blender)
at several adult education centers in Berlin, as well as at private educational institutions

Floral Deformation

A green thread runs through Georg Hornung's photographic oeuvre: influenced by his childhood in his parents' nursery and by his later leisure-time preoccupation with the theory and practice of botany, he constantly creates new experimental photographic image series whose themes revolve around a contemporary representation of plant life. In his artistic works, however, he is never concerned with the pure photographic depiction of plants in their natural beauty. "Uprooted Plant", "Lost Blossoms" and "Withering Rose" - picture titles from the eighties - already prove the examination of the currently highly topical problem of the influence and endangerment of plant life by human activities, include with all floral aesthetics transformation and perishing.

The phototechnical approach and realization of Hornung's plant images also do not correspond to the usual photographic image expectations: In the work phase of manual photo-montages, black-and-white photographs of plants were torn and cut up and recomposed in new ways; in the picture cycle ARBOFAKTE, mounted symbioses were created between various kinds of tree trunks and architectural fragments; in the series HERBARIUM, wild herbs were copied onto film sections as blurred and seemingly dissolving negative images; and the series LICHTWESEN shows cleverly produced photograms of unique plants on black-and-white photographic paper.

The works from the series FLORALE DEFORMATION were created similarly to the photograms produced in the darkroom without the use of a camera and film: they are scanno-grams in which a flatbed scanner, specially prepared and converted, was used as the recording apparatus. In contrast to the photogram, which has a strongly alienating effect due to the creation of a negative shadow image, the scannogram is more similar to the photograph created by a camera and depicts the placed object as a positive, in color and true to detail. The decision in favor of the scanner as a camera of a special kind was made out of interest in the process similarity between the photo and the scannogram: the procedure of placing the objects on the scanner and taking the picture in direct contact with the light-sensitive layer or the optically scanning sensors.

Collections

Städtische Kunstsammlung Dresden
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Kupferstichkabinett
Brandenburgische Kunstsammlung Cottbus
Kunsthalle Hamburg, Kupferstichkabinett
Schweizer Stiftung für Fotografie, Zurich
Kunstsammlung der Sparkassenzentrale Regensburg
Städtische Galerie Regensburg „Leerer Beutel“
Museum of Modern Art Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, The Joaquim Paiva Collection
Sammlung Das kleine Format, Kunsthaus Lübbeck
Private art collections in Europe and the USA