Ingar Krauss's Vitreus Series at Gaggenau DesignElementi Hub in Milan

Ingar Krauss's Vitreus series is on display at the Gaggenau DesignElementi Hub in Milan, curated by Sabino Maria Frassà for the In-Material project. Krauss, a German photographer born in East Berlin in 1965, is known for portraits of troubled adolescents in Russian institutions and monumental still lifes. The Vitreus series focuses on glass, with light becoming both subject and creator. Krauss uses a glazing technique: black-and-white photographs manually treated with an oil-and-wax emulsion, blending painting and photography. The twenty photographs are arranged among Gaggenau's glossy furnishings, capturing glass sheets, mirrors, and discs in precarious balance, creating reflections. The process recalls Pictorialism, where photographic surfaces were treated painterly. The images evoke Dutch oil painting's luminosity and depth, with an architectural, rationalist aesthetic reflecting Krauss's cultural background. Some shots show Cubist influence, with minimal color range. Krauss's complex procedure questions photography's direct reproducibility, altering perception and mixing pictorial and photographic languages.