Josenturm in Schwäbisch Hall - Daguerreotype (2021) Photography by Valerius Geng

Valerius Geng is a German photographer from Satteldorf. In his artistic work he mainly works with analogue photography techniques such as daguerreotype, ambrotype and cliché verre. His works are created through experimental processes and research into photographic processes that were mainly developed in the 19th century. His aim is not to imitate the aesthetics of that time in detail. Rather, he is interested in the connection between different visual worlds - from the past to the present - and sometimes even in their combination.

The term photography comes from ancient Greek and means something like "drawing with light". This light es through the camera obscura, is projected in reverse onto a screen and leaves a fleeting breath of the moment on a mirror-polished silver plate. Photography is always the preservation of a past moment that will never return. Only through photography can it be captured and stored for a certain period of time. Valerius Geng prefers processes such as the daguerreotype and the ambrotype because they capture the light and the shapes directly through chemical processes in their originality and authenticity.

A completely different topic that the photographer deals with just as intensively is the creation of abstract images - 100% cameraless and yet analogue. In his series "Geometry of Chaos" he explores the hidden order in apparent chance - a world of fractals in which patterns and structures reveal themselves within chaos. In doing so, he tries to give these randomly emerging forms a direction, to control them and to unite them with his own artistic vision. His work is a dialogue between natural processes and conscious intervention - a striving for harmony between the unpredictable geometry of nature and the human imagination. In the analogue photo lab, these structures are made visible, developed further and brought into a new, unexpected form.

Another element of his work is his engagement with digital art and its connection to traditional techniques. He creates images according to his own ideas and combines them with analogue styles from the 19th and 20th centuries. With the help of a slide exposure unit, he transfers these works onto silver plates of a daguerreotype. But independently of this, he also experiments with different image worlds and combines different photographic eras. This creates hybrid compositions that unite the past, present and future. His works show that a completely independent visual language can emerge by combining traditional and modern techniques.

• Nationality:
• Date of birth : 1974
• Artistic domains:
• Groups: Contemporary German Artists