At first glance, Frank Kunert's photographs appear to portray scenes of everyday environments — concrete buildings, playgrounds, dining rooms, hotels, etc. Take a closer look, however, and you'll find that things aren't quite what they seem. In fact, his photographs depict a series of 'small worlds' — miniature scenes that the German artist has carefully constructed — that subvert the audience's expectations and play with our sense of perception.
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A photograph of a miniature Museum of Contemporary Art, titled 'At a High Level' shows a museum on stilts, with no way to reach the steps; while 'Office Nap' depicts a desk that doubles as a cot. There's a sense of dark satire running throughout Kunert's works, reinforced by an eerie lack of people, overcast skies and grey buildings. Parallels with the surrealist movement are hard to ignore: the audience is encouraged to question their sense of perception as well as the social zeitgeists that we rely so heavily on.
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Kunert invests an extensive amount of time — often weeks on end — building his miniature worlds and perfecting studio lighting. He then photographs them with a large-format analog camera. His approach is meticulous and highly considered, with the utmost attention to detail afforded to each element of his scenes.
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In an essay in the photo book Wunderland, Elizabeth Clarke writes of Kunert's work: "His constructions are reflections of our fears and needs, but also of our desires. They bring home the absurdity of the everyday: the grotesque attempts to organise our lives, the disappearance of old traditions, the way we deal with one another and with our history".
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Keep up to date with Frank Kunert's work and follow him on Instagram.
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