Cathedral and Monks' Church

Silent Sensations – Cologne and Altenberg in the Photographs of Eckard Alker

Less well-known than his paintings and prints are Eckard Alker’s photographic works, although he has been working artistically with the camera for about 25 years and has presented the results in numerous exhibitions over the years. Exhibitions such as “Nächtliche Halluzinationen” at the Galerie am Markt in Porz (1998), “Kleine Landschaften” at the Werkstatt-Galerie Tam Uekermann in Cologne (2005), or the show “Gäste am schwarzen Tisch” a year later here at Kulturhaus Zanders may still be fresh in your memory. Together with many other smaller exhibitions, they made two things impressively clear: First, Alker is not only a painter and graphic artist, but equally a photographer with an unmistakable, entirely unique style. Second, two motifs play a prominent role in all the techniques he employs: Cologne Cathedral and Altenberg Cathedral. 

These two architectural landmarks—the cathedral in the big city and the monastery church in the countryside—represent the bustling metropolis on the Rhine and the more tranquil Bergisches Land as the defining centers of the artist’s life. This is where he lives; this is where he finds his inspiration; this is the cradle of his art. Time and again, Alker has depicted these two stone testaments to deep faith and bold daring. His artistic engagement with the spirit and form of Gothic architecture, which continues to this day, can be traced seamlessly back to the early 1980s. In 1981, an etching was published showing both cathedrals on the open pages of a book. In 2009, nearly thirty years later, Alker presented three digital prints to mark the 750th anniversary of the laying of the foundation stone of Altenberg Cathedral. One of these prints, reworked with oil paint, bears the telling title: “Many Eyes See Differently.” This “different way of seeing” is evidently also what Alker is exploring in the 66 photographs now on view at Kulturhaus Zanders. They do not form a preplanned series. Rather, they constitute a current selection of images taken over several years. Twenty-four images depict Cologne Cathedral, and forty-two depict Altenberg Cathedral. 

Is there really anything left to gain artistically from these motifs, which have been depicted millions of times—and not just by the Romantics? Now that images of Cologne Cathedral adorn even beer bottle labels and obituaries, is there really anything left to discover? Haven’t internationally renowned painters and photographers, postcards, and other products of our universal visual culture—which penetrates even the most trivial depths—already said everything conceivable? This skepticism is certainly not unjustified. And yet Alker succeeds in showing us that much remains unseen and is just waiting to be discovered by us. We must admit that our perception is determined and consequently limited by the traditions of culturally defined ways of seeing. The visual patterns of others that we encounter come between us and reality, causing us to overlook or unconsciously block out what is not canonized.

Alker initially worked with the simplest cameras, the kind amateurs use to “snap” vacation photos. He has only been shooting digitally for about six years, without resorting to professional equipment. He does not edit his photos; the prints—an equal mix of color and black-and-white—are produced by a professional lab.
The images he presents to us are therefore neither embellished nor altered in any way. They document unusual fragments of an existing reality, unfiltered and unmanipulated, apart from the framing of the image. Alker does not use the camera—as other painters do—as a substitute for a sketchbook (
), although it cannot be overlooked that the painter Alker benefits in many ways from the photographer Alker. For example, the figuration of certain shadows is similar in both cases. But on the whole, Alker regards photography as an independent medium with specific possibilities and an autonomous visual language that, above all, enables the instantaneous recording of a fleeting visual impression.
Alker does not seek out his motifs; he finds them. He is not interested in the architectural ornamentation of Cologne Cathedral that seems to vanish into infinity. All these finials, capitals, triple-lancet windows, and other architectural delights on this marvel of Gothic architecture captivate him less than their reflections on the window facades of the surrounding buildings or on the wet stone slabs of the squares. He is fascinated by how sunlight transforms this massive “stone mountain” into a fleeting, delicate shadow image that, though immaterial, is no less real than the building itself. He captures how the superimposition of multiple reflections in windows and doors results in varying degrees of blurriness or even astonishing distortions. He discovers the cathedral as a fragmented or undulating structure that at times seems to merge with other surrounding buildings into a single reflection. Alker absorbs these discoveries—overlooked by most people rushing by—into himself and his photographs. Taken together, they form a sensitive world in which the poetry of the incidental creates quiet sensations.
While the photographs of Cologne Cathedral were taken mainly in the immediate vicinity of the cathedral—that is, they are exterior shots—the images from Altenberg primarily show the interior of the austere, clear-lined Cistercian abbey. Here, Alker is particularly interested in the interplay of architecture and light. Precisely cut arches and smooth, reflective wall surfaces are set in contrast to the softly drawn twilight in the foliage of the capitals. Ancient tombs, altar furnishings, and their details are revealed and united with the space by the all-encompassing light. Alker explores the mystical quality of light in this space by demonstrating how the whole and its parts relate to one another. In doing so, he seeks to convey an intense, intimate experience of the space.

Dr. Wolfgang Vomm