Florian Maier-Aichen

Florian Maier-Aichen is a German landscape photographer. His images are produced through a blend of computer editing and traditional photographic methods. 

Biography of Florian Maier-Aichen

Florian Maier-Aichen was born in 1973 in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, an artist, introduced him to numerous museums during his childhood, fostering his later interest in art. Growing up surrounded by various cameras in his family home, Maier-Aichen developed a curiosity for photography and the art of image creation. He eventually set up his small lab and darkroom, where he processed and printed his negatives.

The pivotal moment in Maier-Aichen's photographic career came with his decision to relocate and study in California. Following his graduation from the University of Essen in Germany and the Hoegskolan for Fotografi och Film Gothenborg in Sweden, Florian enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned his MFA.

Maier-Aichen chose UCLA primarily for its faculty, which included artists he admired such as James Welling and Christopher Williams. He found the photography program in Los Angeles to be intriguing and innovative, in contrast to what he perceived as a repetitive nature in German photography. One of his influential teachers at UCLA was John Baldessari, who played a significant role in Maier-Aichen's artistic development. Baldessari encouraged Florian to investigate, explore, and challenge conventions, teaching him a valuable lesson in breaking rules and embracing mistakes.

Florian Maier-Aichen's work has been showcased in numerous group and solo exhibitions across the United States and Europe. In 2006, he participated in the prestigious Whitney Biennial. His art is held in several notable public collections, including the Denver Art Museum, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Saatchi Gallery in London. 

Currently, Florian Maier-Aichen splits his time between Cologne, Germany, and Los Angeles, USA.

Florian Maier-Aichen's Art Style

Florian Maier-Aichen manipulates vast landscape scenes with staged effects like double exposures, light leaks, and computer and manual adjustments. The resulting painterly landscapes evoke early photography and German Romantic paintings.

Maier-Aichen's artistic method entails merging photography and drawing. This is accomplished by modifying completed photographic images, incorporating fictional elements, adjusting colors, and reshaping the original visual outcome. Maier-Aichen doesn't perceive photography as strictly hyper-realistic, and the final result frequently diverges significantly from the initial precise photograph.

The artist typically employs large-format cameras in his work. He does not adhere to a series-based approach; each image is distinct, and the scale and size of the resulting print are determined on an individual basis. Often, errors such as camera leaks, aging film, or lab mistakes occur. Maier-Aichen incorporates these chance factors into his photography with the aid of computers, introducing imperfections and illogical elements. This approach has become a distinctive characteristic of his work.

Primarily focusing on landscapes of the American West and Europe, such as the Hollywood Hills, snowy mountains, and fjords, Maier-Aichen's images resemble idealized drawings more than straightforward documentation. Many of these scenes are captured from elevated viewpoints. Drawing inspiration from nineteenth-century pioneer photographers, Maier-Aichen revives the artistry and alchemy of early photography. He works with various film types including black-and-white, color, infrared, and tricolor films.