Kellners work is most of all known for an intense interaction between light and colour, his artworks in black and white however, reflect Kellners early beginnings as an artist. In march 2017 his black and white artworks back from 1997-2005 have been shown in the Vrais Reves Gallery, located in Lyon. The catalougue (Noire & Blanc 1997 – 2005) that was published by the gallery accompanying the exhibition, shows 23 of Kellners black and white photographs. These photographs show, not only the beginning of Kellners career, but also the beginning of photography itself. Kellner remains true to the 35mm film, as without it the history of film industry and the development of digital photography would be unthinkable.

While shooting the Eiffel tower in 1997, a project which originally developed from the idea to create an analogy to the Orphism by Robert Delaunay, Kellners characteristical picture language was born. Ever since his multi-perspective, deconstructing photographs have been creating alternatives to our known reality.

“[…] Kellner's photographs incorporate a new vision, contemporary and organic.” Scheit-Koppitz, Stefanie; Brasília. 50 anos de utopia moderna.

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In a time when many artists are returning to black-and-white photography, the artist looks back on this period of his life. Even though most of his black-and-white works were never published, they do reflect his early career. That time when he worked mostly in silver gelatin and experimented with cycles of various photographic images in the darkroom. He ended up developing his unique visual language of multiple perspectives and the deconstructive approach. Thereby the composite image is either a multiple exposure on a negative or a sequence mounted on a contact sheet of 35-mm roll of film.

Starting with his first sketches of the Eiffel Tower as a homage to Robert Delaunay and Orphism (the French offshoot of cubism) in Paris in 1997, he totally turned his attention from landscape to architecture and the growing complexity of compositions. He created ageless classic images in his newly invented visual language based on Cubism. In his early black-and-white images, the observer can see how he focuses on the structure itself. The balance between the object and its visual form are at the center of his creations.

The exhibition shows a selection of 50 of Kellner’s iconic and best black-and-white images from San Francisco, New York City and Chicago for the first time. It also will have some larger scale works on show- for example, an impressive image of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao.

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Thank you to Galerie Vrais Reves for this wonderful gallery catalog on my black and white works.