"Uri-Rotstock 1 46°51’N 8°32’E"
Isenthal, Switzerland
C-print on Dibond on Diasec
At first glance, the night shots of the mighty mountain and alpine landscapes look like long exposure shots in bright moonlight. However, a closer look at the extraordinary views reveals masterful works of staged photography.
Adrian Bischoff is a commercial photographer from Frankfurt am Main and has been photographing mountains in the dark for more than a decade. Using spotlights shining twenty kilometers away, he illuminates the rocky formations, usually from several locations. He then assembles a view that has never existed in this form using hundreds of individual shots in post-processing on the computer, like a puzzle. Bischoff says: "It's fascinating what comes out of it: I have a black canvas and chisel out my artwork."
The spotlights are cleverly positioned during the several hours of staging and their relatively small beam of light is slowly moved over the mountain ridges. The drama of the shadows is created by the unusual low light, which can only occur in nature at sunrise and sunset. The additional confusion is created by the camera position, which is usually far away from the position of the spotlights.
Adrian Bischoff's love of the mountains goes back to his childhood: his mother, who comes from near Salzburg in Austria, enjoyed spending time with her children in nature and the mountains. What was then perceived as a tiresome family trip and duty is now expressed by Bischoff as a fascination and admiration for the giant rocks.
The ingenious patchwork technique of his photographs was the result of years of experiments with flashes, flares and million-watt spotlights, which led to the realization that such a large surface as a mountain can only be illuminated in individual small sections. In this sense, Adrian Bischoff's works introduce us to the actual meaning of the word photography - from the ancient Greek φῶς phōs "light" (in the genitive φωτός photós) and γραφή graphḗ for drawing, painting, writing - drawing with light.
(Christoph Fuchs, 2023)