{"product_id":"walter-schels-16-grad-fische-fotografien-1958-2026","title":"16 Degrees Pisces. Photographs 1958–2026","description":"\u003cp\u003eWalter Schels' work has unfolded for almost seven decades between documentation and transformation, between formal rigor and experimental playfulness. Schels is best known as an empathetic portraitist: With his reduced visual language, he explores the essence of his subjects. Whether an infant or an old man, an elephant or a faded flower – at the heart of his documentary portrait series and long-term studies are existential themes such as identity, birth, and death.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn contrast, his experimental work has received little attention so far: With overpaintings, double exposures, collages, or polarizations, he pushes the boundaries into the painterly realm. Schels understands photography as an open process. \"A picture is never finished,\" he says – and by that, he means not only an artistic attitude but the concrete material process: In the red light of the darkroom, Schels says, he experiences the world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e16° Pisces\u003c\/em\u003e brings together both halves of his oeuvre for the first time. In addition to the portraits, the volume presents experimental discoveries that complete the view of photographer Walter Schels – from transformed cityscapes of 1960s New York to series he himself describes as \"waste images,\" to current abstract works with photochemicals and plant fragments.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd like the collected works, the title is a poetic self-localization: When Schels was born in Landshut in 1936, the sun was in the zodiac sign Pisces – at 16 degrees. Schels derives the basic traits of his artistic temperament from this constellation: sensitivity, intuition, imagination, and an inexhaustible interest in people.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"UTF-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWalter Schels, born in Landshut in 1936, is one of Germany's most influential portraitists. From 1957 to 1965, he worked as a window dresser in Barcelona, Toronto, and Geneva before moving to New York as a self-taught artist to become a photographer. In 1970, he returned to Germany and opened a studio in Munich. Until the mid-1990s, he worked for advertising clients such as BMW, Pan Am, and Deutsche Post, as well as for magazines such as \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eStern, Annabelle, Eltern\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eZEITmagazin\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. At the same time, he produced independent works. From the mid-1980s onwards, his black-and-white portraits became well-known; in particular, his documentary long-term studies and portrait series reached a broad audience. Schels' works have received numerous awards and have been exhibited both in Germany and abroad.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEdited by the F.C. Gundlach Foundation\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e280 pages, 310 illustrations\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHardcover \/ Half-linen\u003cbr\u003e24 x 29 cm\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGerman \/ English\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eISBN 978-3-96999-559-4\u003cbr\u003e1st Edition 06\/2026\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WALTER SCHELS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":65466309607773,"sku":"BK-WS-005","price":50.0,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0896\/1690\/8637\/files\/Walter-Schels-1.png?v=1785836779","url":"https:\/\/fcgundlach.de\/en\/products\/walter-schels-16-grad-fische-fotografien-1958-2026","provider":"Stiftung F.C. Gundlach","version":"1.0","type":"link"}