Heinz Peter Knes: on distance

on distance is a volume of photographs by Heinz Peter Knes, representing a small selection from his extensive archive of travel photography dating back to 2010. Unlike a conventional approach to a personal travel log, indexing places and situations, ordered according to chronologies or geographies, the photos and their ordering reflect upon broader cultural themes driven by personal interests, desires, and chance. Knes, in conversation with Julie Ault, ordered the images according to subjective and associative categories influenced by Warburg's "law of the good neighbor", Warburg's principal of library organization based on the exchange and mutual engagement between books placed next to each other, rather than classical groupings that branch off from general categories such as "fine art" or "photography."

on distance opens up a similar research into the possible languages that emerge within images when they are allowed to be read without restraints of preconceived modes of categorizing knowledge and experience. The book is published on the occasion of the exhibition: mothertongue by Danh Vo, The Danish Pavilion, 56th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, May 9 - November 22, 2015. The publication is supported by the Danish Arts Foundation.

Text: Danish Arts Foundation

Image and Text: the shop, ©Authors, the shop, 2019