Wolfgang Tillmans – Louisiana (1996)

Louisiana poster with the motif, Louisiana (1996), by the German photographer, Wolfang Tillmans (b. 1968). Two boys bathe just below Louisiana. Summer trembles over Øresund, everything seems so carefree, innocent. But is something still lurking on the horizon..?

Wolfgang Tillmans captured the subject with his special sensibility when he was visiting the museum in connection with the exhibition, NowHere.

Tillman's international career took off in earnest in the years that followed and in 2003 the museum was able to show a solo exhibition with Tillmans. And then in 2019 we finally succeeded—with support from the Augustinus Foundation—in acquiring this very early work, Louisiana1996, for the collection—the ring was closed.

In Tillmann's photographic work there is a spread between portraits, reportage, still life, landscape photography and darkroom experiments with the use of light, paper and liquids.

Tillman's pictures, in all their diversity, reflect both a private view and a shared culture. By placing oneself on the same level as the viewer in point of view and presentation, an accessibility arises that imperceptibly gives rise to dialogues, where photographer, subject, media and viewer are equal parties and together form new significant stories—shared and private.