Roland Fischer

Roland Fischer’s (b. 1958, Saarbrücken) photographic portraits are always part of thematic series. In the series L.A. Portraits (1989–93), the faces of men and women of various ages stand out against aquatic backgrounds marked by reflections of different types of blue. At first glance, the images seem to focus on the facial features of the characters, on certain stereotypes. Due in part to the size of the photographs, the singularity of each protagonist and their particular presence is nevertheless apparent in each of the portraits. Certain details, like the title of the series, the swimming pool or the facial expressions invite the viewer to speculate on the circumstances in which the photographs were taken. For Fischer, his series constitute conceptual works of art, images maintaining an ambiguous relationship with their content, like the relationship between freedom and individual existence and the limits imposed by the exterior environment. Fischer is first and foremost interested in the ‘contrast between the surface with an almost mathematical character of the photograph and the natural shape of the human face’.