Deutsch / English

Conserving

Life and death are the themes which have always exerted an incredible fascination on human beings. The trilogy entitled “Conserving” — which includes “Conserving Fish,” “Conserving Animals” and “Conserving Humans” — is a sensitive confrontation with a part of our life that is frequently repressed or tabooed.

Daniel and Geo Fuchs pursue exiting new paths in this photographic work. Their virtuosic use of lighting enables them to breathe new life into specimens, some of which have been conserved in alcohol or formaldehyde for as much as 300 years.

The appeal of their photographs derives from the breathtaking beauty of the colors and structures and from a magical expressiveness which invites the viewer to enter hitherto unknown worlds. The images, which recall the enigmatic paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, simultaneously become icons and venerable, reverential objects.

For the first time ever, these artistic photographs depict specimens from natural history museums and anatomical collections, many of which have never before been on public display.

Daniel and Geo Fuchs rank among the newly discovered stars in the world of contemporary photography. In recent years, they have won international accolades for their projects and exhibitions. The photos in their “Conserving” trilogy are scheduled to be shown at numerous international exhibitions.

The book of photographs entitled “Conserving” was printed in uniquely high quality, using the new, six-color “hexachrome” color-printing process. The photos are especially impressive thanks to the unprecedented brillance of the colors and the extreme depth of field, which conveys a startingly three-dimensional impression.

Aesthetic design and top-quality craftsmanship make this large-format art-photo volume into a visual masterpiece. In “Conserving,” the internationally famed photographers Daniel and Geo Fuchs have successfully translated a fascinating theme into a major document in the field of contemporary photography.

photography:Daniel+Geo Fuchs
ISBN 978-3-934020-01-6
dimensions 24,5 x 31,5 cm
240 pages
180 color photographs
printed in six-color (hexachrome) process
texts in G, E, F, I
hardcover, thread bound
six-color dust jacket.
Price 98,00 EUR

Dear customer, if you want to pay by credit card, please order the books at our reliable service partner ”Hermansky Books” in the Czech Republic.
MastercardVisacard

 

The results of this fantastic journey into the realm of the dead are timelessly beautiful pictures recall the works of the Old Master painters and reveal to us the wonder of life itself.
MAX (Deutschland)

 

 

The resultant photos have such brilliance, luminosity and expressive power that that seem to breathe new life into the preserved specimens, some of which are as much as 300 years old… Just one year after the publication of their photos, Daniel and Geo Fuchs had already begun to enjoy tremendous success throughout Europe and in North America.
COLOR FOTO (Deutschland)

 

 

Death behind glass acquires a fascinating beauty.
STERN (Deutschland)

 

 

The specimen survived in its glass container since 1750, wholly undamaged but also entirely overlooked by the general public. Not until artists Geo and Daniel Fuchs discovered the little corpse, photographed it and presented its photo at international art exhibitions did the specimen become visible to millions of people.
FOCUS (Deutschland)

 

 

The gorgeous wonder of life after death. The photos are simultaneously eerie and fascinating.
DIE WELT (Deutschland)

 

 

And even though, in the 1980s, photographers such as Joel-Peter Witkin, Rudolf Schäfer and most recently Andres Serrano had already turned their attention to the fascination of death, there’s still something entirely different in the work of Daniel & Geo Fuchs. Not solely because their work is considerably more comprehensive. Irregardless of whether their subjects are animals or human beings, they create a certain aesthetic precisely because they make no changes in the specimens, neither before, during nor after the photo shooting. They preserve the attitude of respect for the individual and for death itself.
PHOTO TECHNIK INTERNATIONAL (Deutschland)

 

 

Their photos are like paintings. The lighting makes the objects seem to glow and float.
BERLINER ZEITUNG (Deutschland)

 

 

Everywhere they went, they were cordially received by conserved death, a chemically preserved menagerie kept within transparent glass coffins. These photos are shocking precisely because they’re so very good.
SPIEGEL KULTUR (Deutschland)

 

 

Even though everything that we’re seeing is already dead, the two authors seem to fly in the face of this undeniable fact and, through the intuitive correctness with which they illuminate their subjects, they make the specimens seem to come alive again… And it is also this remarkable, almost magical lighting that makes these photos worth looking at…It makes sense not only to look at the book, but also to view the exhibition. Whereas the book gives its reader the opportunity to be drawn under the spell of this fantastic journey time and time again, the original photos in the exhibition have a presence which is simultaneously impressive and impossible to overlook.
PHOTONEWS (Deutschland)

 

 

The aesthetic design and elaborate processing make this large-format art-photo book into a visual masterpiece.
STYLE (Deutschland)

 

 

In a bizarre way, these photos are an homage to the beauty and the miracle of life. A visual masterpiece.
LEICA FOTOGRAFIE (Deutschland)

 

 

The poetry of the ephemeral, captured in imagery. Daniel and Geo Fuchs have devoted themselves to a sensitive encounter between life and death. Ever since this lavishly illustrated volume was published by Munich’s Edition Reuss this spring, the two photographers have been jetting halfway around the world to show parts of their “Conserving” project at exhibitions.
BASELER ZEITUNG (Schweiz)

 

 

Something peaceful emanates from these photos. Sometimes even an extreme tenderness. And then, an unspeakable morbidity.
LE FIGARO (Frankreich)

 

 

Fascinating glimpses of death, a frightening theme about which people usually prefer not to speak. And yet: the shock is lacking. The photos are so aesthetic; and even after hundreds of years, the perfectly preserved human bodies seem so peaceful. They’ve lost nothing of their dignity.
HAMBURGER MORGENPOST (Deutschland)

 

 

A cult of the dead in formaldehyde: Daniel and Geo Fuchs have created breathtaking photos of people and animals…The colors are repeatedly striking. Von Hagens, with his plastic corpses, cannot achieve pastel hues like these. But this yellow and this green – they’re pure Hieronymus Bosch colors. So, it seems that messages do indeed arrive from the realm of those who have not experienced salvation.
DER TAGESSPIEGEL (Deutschland)

 

 

Some corpses look so peaceful, they almost seem to be sleeping. Aesthetic photos. And yet: one cannot bear it for very long. Or one begins to think about one’s own death.
BILD (Deutschland)

 

 

Even if the silvery eyes stare only with a broken gaze, the camera liberates the animal from its double captivity – in glass and in death – and manumits it into a sculptural life by making the container and the conserving fluid very nearly invisible.
TAZ (Deutschland)

 

 

The results are astonishing: the photographed bodies float weightlessly, as though they were beyond time and space.
SCHWEIZER SONNTAGSZEITUNG (Schweiz)