The full series of “Sunburns” depicts neither real nor tangible objects but rather traces left by the destructiveprocesses of sunlight. Claus Stolz is experimenting with a unique and radical procedure using film photography. He does not focus his camera on objects illuminated by sunlight; instead, heconcentrates on the source of light itself. Over the course of this process, which involves exposure times varying from a few seconds to several hours, the sun’s rays attack the photosensitive film andpartially destroy it. The intensity of the solar radiation and the traces of burning continue across the film, left by the regular movement of the sun, and appear in his works like clouds that have beenthinned or sliced into several parts.
The final result derives from the technique employed, which varies with the type of camera used, the objective (certain lenses can measure up to a metre in diameter!),the installation of the material, the sensitivity of the film and the technique used to develop it. After exposure, some films will in part be directly enlarged without any preliminary chemical treatment. Theshots taken using large format cameras or with photographic tools he designed himself do not have the “distanciation” one gets from digital pictures. To a certain extent, the sun also has a creative rolein this process, in the same way as the artist does, for it provides the ultimate parameters for the conception of the work. The destructive force of sunlight is also able to create something new: highlypersonal cosmoses of different colour palettes, various structures and finely concentrated details are born from the bursting, weakening and crystallising of the layers of film. Traces of time and energyare captured in this way, merged onto the photosensitive paper to become astonishingly visible and palpable.
Year of production: 1996-
