Pride of Deer #2

Introduction

Photographer Frank Stöckel has always imagined the landscape of his North German home between Kiel and Lübeck as something corporeal, alive, seemingly breathing. He has never lost his intense connection to this place. Even while he earned his keep in Hamburg with editorial work and practical projects, he dedicated himself increasingly to his freelance work on nature and its magic.

In his undoubtedly most haunting photo series, he tells a story of the rare white breed of red deer. An encounter with this wondrous creature, which was brought by Hungarian noblemen to western European courts in the eighteenth century as a small, luck-inducing gift, supposedly transported any viewer to a mythical and magical world. White, the color of purity and innocence, of immaculateness and the holy, seemed to link the peaceful animals to the mythical unicorn that frolicked in the company of virgins in medieval images of the Garden of Paradise.

Stöckel’s images from the Eekholt nature reserve bring to life something of this imaginary, holy world– and that in the middle of Germany. And that’s not all: Stöckel’s works are also specifically photographic. These are neither miniatures from the medieval age of the Minnesang, nor Romantic aquarelles – no, they are photographs, which intensifies their magic by underscoring their authenticity.

Stöckel’s works brilliantly master the tightrope walk between secrecy and kitsch in their strict, minimalist graphic style, erasing any trace of sweetness and affording the white creatures their immediacy. He trusts in the effect of his motif – just as noblemen did long before the invention of photography as they kept the unique animals on their palace grounds. Both Stöckel and the erstwhile nobles rely on similar aesthetic constructions, and the latter surely employed the beasts to impress aristocratic society. Our fascination with the creatures today remains unbroken, and yet Frank Stöckel lends the subject his own formal twist.

Bio

1959	born in Eutin, Germany
1980 – 1985	Social Pedagogy in Braunschweig; participation at art and photography seminars by Ute Walter
1985 – 1990	Education in Photography and assistance in Hamburg
since 1990	free photographer with own Studio in Hamburg; commercial and editorial photography
since 1999	Member of the Bund Freischaffender Foto-Designer e. V. (BFF)

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions

2003	„Weiße Hirsche“ (white deer) exhibition in the Design-Galerie Lumisol in Munich
	„Produkt Kreise“ ( product circles) and „Produkt Wald“ (product forest), exhibition in the GoLab Gallery in Berlin
1987	Free works for the Theatre Project in the Hamburger Kampnagelfabrik
1978	Landschaften, Naturbilder aus der Heimat Schleswig Holstein (landscapes, nature images from the homeland Schleswig Holstein); Eutin

Group Exhibitions

2010	Augenmerk Erde, Umweltfotofestival Horizonte, Zingst, Germany
2008	Aufgetischt! Fotografische Inszenierung des Genusses, Galerie Kulturreich, Hamburg, Germany
2007	Hommage to Irwing Penn, Aplanat Galerie Hamburg, Germany
2005	Participation at the Benefits Auction BEAT IT 3 of the „Freundeskreises Jugend hilft Jugend“ in the course of the 3.Triennale der Photografie in Hamburg
	Exhibition of the Grauwert Gallery „ Woher kommst Du – wohin gehst Du“ (where do you come from-where are you going) in the course of the 3.Triennale der Photografie in Hamburg
2003	Diverse Series in a group exhibition in Schloss Eutin
2000	Prise for the poster of th ebook "Neugierig 2: Das Buch über Graphik- und Kommunikationsdesign“ (Curious 2: the book about Graphic and Communication Design)as „100 besten Plakate“ ( the 100 best posters)