Schillingbrücke, Berlin, 2001

The landscape photographs of Axel Hütte involve painstaking composition and a clearly chosen vantage point that avoids reference to the viewer or the photographer. His nocturnal observations combine these elements with a dramatic transformation of light and reflection creating a sublime image, which has been likened to the romantic expression associated with the work of Gustave Le Gray. The meditative quality of Hütte's nightscapes results from the traces of motion created by his prolonged exposure times. 'In the picture of the Schillingbrücke in Berlin the lamps and shipping signals that dot the urban landscape become poignantly frayed on the face of the water, defining the river as the realm of the underworld and the subconscious.' (Schmitz, As Dark as Light, Schirmer Mosel, 2001, p. 10)