Artis Umbrae
Photography here does not begin with light, but with its withdrawal. Form first acquires weight in shadow; presence first emerges through reduction. Light is not understood as a means of complete representation, but as the boundary at which visibility begins and ends.
The works enter into dialogue with photographic positions of the early twentieth century, in which the visible was not explained, but condensed. The body is not merely illuminated, but formed within the tension between light and withdrawal.
The majority of the photographic works on this website feature the unclothed human body as a means of artistic expression.
One Work – Several Paths
The Series form the photographic core of Artis Umbrae. Within them, individual ideas develop into interconnected bodies of work, each with its own visual language, symbolism and internal order.
The Cogitationes lead into the world of thought behind and alongside the images. They explore photography and art history, perception and aesthetics, historical influences, sources of inspiration and working processes – as well as the occasionally rather idiosyncratic paths by which an observation may develop into an artistic idea.
Those who wish to follow the continuing development of Artis Umbrae may subscribe to the Cogitationes newsletter. Approximately once a month, it brings together newly published essays, recent series and other developments on the website.
Read the Cogitationes
The Exhibitiones are walk-through virtual exhibition spaces. In these online galleries, selected works are presented in spatial relationships. They offer a different encounter with photography from that provided by a conventional website: not as a sequence of individual images, but as an exhibition through which visitors may move freely.
Enter the Exhibitiones
Under About the Artist, visitors will find information about Josef Volsa, the origins of Artis Umbrae and his photographic approach.
Together, these areas open different paths into the growing universe of Artis Umbrae: through the images, through the thoughts from which they emerge and through the virtual spaces in which they encounter one another.
An Invitation to Linger
Artis Umbrae was not created for the passing glance. Visitors are invited to take their time: with individual images, with the relationships within a series, with the thoughts between the works and with the spaces in which they are presented.
Not everything that takes effect within an image has to be visible.