Wolfgang Tillmans – Speedmaster #2

For the edition Speedmaster #2, Wolfgang Tillmans prepared four distinct printing inks (in a four-color gradient, from dark red, green, blue, to black, left to right) and fed them into the running press. After the sheets were printed and allowed to dry, they were meticulously folded by hand. When the sheet is unfolded, it should not be flattened, but rather displayed with the creases and surface tension intact, allowing each fold to reflect light in different shades.

Wolfgang Tillmans (born 1968 in Remscheid, Germany) is one of the most influential figures in contemporary photography, widely recognized for redefining what a photographic artwork can be. Since emerging in the early 1990s, he has worked across portraits, still lifes, landscapes, architectural views, and abstract photographs, consistently challenging traditional distinctions between documentary image and artistic experimentation.

Tillmans first gained international attention with intimate photographs of youth culture, club scenes, and LGBTQ communities, capturing everyday life with immediacy and authenticity. Over time, his practice expanded to include large-scale abstract works created directly in the darkroom, where he manipulates light, paper, and chemicals without a camera. These works foreground the material nature of photography itself, questioning how images are produced, displayed, and understood in a visually saturated world.

Across his diverse body of artworks, Tillmans explores perception, politics, identity, and the circulation of images. His limited edition prints and signed photo editions are highly sought after by collectors of contemporary art and museum-quality photographs. Awarded the Turner Prize in 2000, he remains a pivotal voice in contemporary photography, continually expanding the conceptual and technical boundaries of the medium.