LOOK! Fantasie und Wirklichkeit

By Christian and Helga von Alvensleben. Two Lives for Classical Photography

LOOK! is the new photo book by Christian and Helga von Alvensleben, in which the two take us on a journey through the aesthetics and history of photography – and into their very own world of images. The book was published by Jens Bove for the Deutsche Fotothek and contains a text by our Managing Director Sebastian Lux:

"[...] Every single picture is surprising, and yet Christian von Alvensleben's individual visual language is unmistakably expressed in each one. The compilation of the pictures into groups of works also makes the artistic attitude of the two visible and reveals thematic and iconographic lines that run through their entire oeuvre: the love of detail, the skillful use of light, the high demands they place on themselves and on photography, respect for people and for the formal language of nature.
Long before I met Christian and Helga von Alvensleben in person, they had already told me stories with their photographs: They sent the Camel Man on adventurous journeys – always with the characteristic hole in his shoe sole, which he had acquired on wild paths in the jungle or in the desert. Or they photographed vibrant scenes of beautiful people in tight Mustang jeans, dancing in cool discotheques and by shimmering blue pools.
There was always much more in the pictures than met the eye! At F.C. Gundlach's, I encountered Christian von Alvensleben's THE APOCALYPTIC MENU, a large-format cassette with disturbing still lifes, from a severed calf's head to a flattened milk churn. Even then, this seemingly effortless balance between different photographic spheres, which still fascinates me today, became clear. And so I am particularly pleased that the creative couple's joint life's work is preserved in the ARCHIVE OF PHOTOGRAPHERS at the Deutsche Fotothek Dresden, and that this book provides an overview of their work. [...]"

Look! Fantasie und Wirklichkeit
Christian und Helga von Alvensleben. Zwei Leben für die klassische Fotografie

Editor: Deutsche Fotothek, Jens Bove
320 pages, 382 mostly color illustrations
29.5 x 24 cm, hardcover
Publication date March 24, 2025
ISBN 978-3-95498-866-2
€38.00