David Steets

PAINTING THE NIGHT

In order to capture the moods of the night David Steets has spent many nights underneath an open sky. The landscapes underneath the far reaching heavens seem suffused with surreal morning light and glow in a way that recalls the paintings of surrealist painter Magritte.

Magritte also transforms night into day in order to emphasize the beauty of fundamental concepts and things like archetypal landscapes. In David Steets image of the Matterhorn in complete darkness the lonley glow of a mountain climbers base camp echoes the central lantern in Magritte’s “The Empire of Lights” 1954.

There is one decisive difference between David Steets photographs and painting: They are not invented. Entirely the opposite, the artist uses modern digital techniques to visually convey basic  principles of Astronomy.  In his time- lapse exposures the stars seem to draw circles around the north star the brightest star in the constellation of the little dipper.

This fixed point in the sky was and is of extreme importance for navigation within many cultures. The photographically recorded paths of the stars show the rotation of the earth itself as seen from the northern hemisphere. Other rising or falling star paths refer to an orientation towards east or west. The warm glow in the sky near the horizon hints at far away towns and cities.

The longing glow of the skies and the mysterious shadowed landscapes recalls romanticism. However, it also speaks of the many legends where stars have guided heroes or wise men on their quest.  In David Steets Night Paintings astronomy combines with the magical, partly surreal atmosphere.

Horst Klöver



NIGHT AT THE COBACABANA

David Steets (born 1973) tells stories about people and their living conditions in his photographs. He comes closer to them and researches them with his camera. He received the Kodak New Artist Prize (among other awards) as well as acceptance into the World Press Joop Swart masterclass for the striking quality of his portrait-like series that came about during a trip around the world.

The camera is not only a machine with which to copy and record, but it can also be a magical motor that empowers one to make experiences and pushes one forward into new regions. The camera embodies the desire to capture foreign things and situations and this desire led Steets to travel in areas that otherwise would have remained closed to him. “Without a camera packed,“ he says, “I see more superficially. The camera is a type of magnifying glass through which to look more precisely at things.”

The heat of the day still smolders at the Copacabana, but the boys have already put on their uniform shirts and gotten together to play soccer at night. The sky is simply black, the field wide and sandy and lit up artificially from somewhere. Aside from two posts in the distance there’s nothing to see: no goal, no playing field markings. “Night Soccer” tells of the enthusiasm, improvisation skills, and the mentality of a country where the love of play unites with the dream to become rich and famous through soccer. Soccer is probably the only chance for these boys to at once travel the world and maybe stand somewhere in the spotlight of the media.

Steets sees himself as a storyteller. He reports on people all over the world and on their attempts to arrange their life and shape their environment. He’s a traditionalist and ties in with the exploratory need of photography’s early days, when pioneers went out into unknown regions with huge exertion and heavy baggage. As in the middle of the 19th century, Steets always relates the exploratory character of the medium to the photographer’s self awareness. “Without a camera much would remain closed to me,” Steets points out with emphasis. Photography motivates him to travel to a certain place in the first place. First there’s the intensive research, then a planning phase that hones in on a topic that will then be focused into a series.

ENCOUNTERS THROUGH THE CAMERA

Even if the series expands its angle, it’s important to the photographer that each single picture carries within it the whole story. The dense atmosphere of his photos immediately attests to this demand. Each photograph is so strong in and of itself that it has a constancy outside the series. Its complexity reveals a great openness to chance and an extremely sensitive gaze within the self-imposed framework. Freedom with the camera grows along with increasing aplomb in dialogue with the phenomena of human existence. For Steets this is a communication and awareness medium. Photographing isn’t about distancing but rather getting closer. When he’s looking down from a bridge in Lagos upon a row of yellow taxis crowded by people, one can positively sense that he in no way raises himself above things. Because somehow it seems to the rebellious teenage gang, who stand behind him and wait during the picture-taking, that he’ll pay them the due money to also be in the picture.

IN THE MIDDLE DISTANCE

When Steets eyes things from a respectful distance in favor of showing as much as possible, the pictures are still purist. Maybe at times also a bit desolate. It does convey the feeling that the man with the camera is in the middle of every situation. He doesn’t aim at the individual, or place a distinctive individual destiny in the foreground, but instead lays open the entire extent of the scenarios up to the horizon. Because of this, the photos tell a lot about what’s generally human, about wishes for ideal circumstances, ideal relationships and ideal cities, about the hopes linked to these and their more or less farcical failures.

These are nearly archaic topics but Steets doesn’t let himself be misled by them because he recognizes that one can always bring new nuances to them. His current works of metropolitan views that came about on the drawing board demonstrate this: the mood in cities such as Abuja, Brasilia and Chandigarh are immediately clear and allow themselves to be traced especially clearly with the help of a photographic view – such as that of David Steets. The tracing process is something that Steets also helps forward as an artist. By letting the life and living space of others flow into his work, he also imperceptibly defines his own standpoint. Therefore it’s not surprising that the situations and moment of the picture-taking have as much a personal meaning as the finished picture.

Dr. Boris von Brauchitsch

Solo Exhibitions (Selection)

Essays/Articles (Selection)

Ausstellungskatalog Zypern, Stadtmuseum, München, 1997