Untitled (Documentation of Deep-Sea Fishing) c. 1939 - 1940

Karl Theodor Gremmler took this photograph, titled 'Documentation of Deep-Sea Fishing' we don't know when, or with what equipment. The high-contrast monochrome and oblique angle create a sense of disorientation. It’s not easy to tell what is going on or what the image depicts. The stark contrast reminds me of Franz Kline, or maybe even some of the German Expressionist woodcuts – that really graphic sensibility. The bars dominate the foreground. They create a cage-like structure, as if the viewer were trapped. We glimpse a figure below, their form obscured, hard at work. Is he fishing? It is far from clear. But perhaps this is the point. The image becomes about the act of seeing itself. It challenges our perception. What do we expect from an image, and how do we construct meaning from fragmented information? This piece invites us to embrace ambiguity, to find beauty in the unknown, and to question the very nature of representation. Like a Gerhard Richter painting, it hovers between abstraction and figuration.