Paris Photo: Timm Rautert

The best photo I saw at Paris Photo wasn’t one photo, but two. Mounted in the same frame, this diptych is by Timm Rautert, who was certainly my favorite discovery of the fair. Rautert is a German photographer who, during the mid-1970s, produced some excellent experimental photography. What I like about this work is that it functions perfectly well on a conceptual level, but it’s also not difficult to grasp what Rautert is doing.

The title of the exhibition was “Bildanalytische Photographie,” which could be translated as “Image-analyzing Photography.” It sounds very heady, and while there is certainly serious thinking behind Rautert’s work, the images that he made are so simple, that you couldn’t say he’s overthinking things. The entire booth of Parrotta Gallery(Stuttgart/Berlin) was devoted to his work, and it was a real revelation to discover. I hope to feature a few more images in the future, but for now, I’m going to leave a little mystery to the viewing experience to match my own discovery of the photo.