Jürgen Klauke

Instant Images

Blueprint of a Revolutionary Oeuvre

Jürgen Klauke (b. 1943; lives and works in Cologne) ranks among the foremost German performance, photography, and media artists. This groundbreaking artistic oeuvre explores—with relish and provocation—the transformative character of identities and the aesthetic dimensions of our existence. 

The book Instant Images is an invitation to witness a rediscovery: for the first time, it will present the polaroids taken by Jürgen Klauke more than five decades ago. Created as photographic test series since the late 1960s, they allow us to observe how Klauke experimented with ideas and forms, using the photographic instant image for developing and rehearsing his artistic strategies. The polaroids reveal the origins of his oeuvre. In his comprehensive afterword, Steffen Siegel, professor of the theory and history of photography at Folkwang University of the Arts and the book’s editor, outlines this body of work's art- and photo-historical significance.