Wolfgang Tillmans: New World

From the stars above Kilimanjaro to Shanghai’s neon-lit cityscape, preeminent photographer Wolfgang Tillmans unveils his first impressions of the furthest reaches of the globe. Taking the viewer on a frenetic journey between London, Tierra del Fuego, Tasmania, Saudi Arabia and beyond, Tillmans’ latest monograph Neue Welt creates a hyperactive and graphically juxtaposed image bank that conveys the sheer density of information available in contemporary culture. Edited and designed by Tillmans, the Taschen release marks a turning point away from his abstract investigations of the photographic form to a more outward-looking figurative exploration of the world and the camera’s ability to record modern-day experience. “Neue Welt is a very inspirational document,” says gallerist Maureen Paley, who has represented Tillmans for over a decade. “It flows from micro to macro observations from all over the world with enormous ease, as only Wolfgang can with his generosity of spirit and innate curiosity for all things visual.” Staying only fleetingly at each place he visited so as to retain his instant reactions, Tillmans switched to a digital camera for the project and refused to retouch his images in order to capture an authentic vision.