Andreas Gursky's Distant Voids

Andreas Gursky's photographic tableaux persistently designate a zone of emptiness while developing a continuous reflection on the notion of distance. The artist is in some respects close to the German Romantic tradition, with occasional analogies to Caspar David Friedrich's painting. 'Absorption' strongly contributes to the distancing effect, making these views scenes before which we are distant spectators, without possible return, exchange, or empathy. One of the most marked aspects of his visual rhetoric is the presence of grids and patterns, obtained through diverse processes. These grids act as a factor of distancing from reality and become an index of anti-naturalism.