"Raumschwingung"

ferrotyped gelatin silver print

stamp verso

In 1949, Keetman was one of the founders of the fotoform group, whose experimental, graphically incisive works echoed the photographic avant-garde of the 1920s. Keetman knew how to combine the influence that the “New Photographers” of the Weimar period had on him with his own individual perception of the reality that surrounded him and to translate it into a new, contemporary aesthetic. During his photographic activity, which spanned several decades, he focused his gaze on recurring subjects. He was interested in visually appealing phenomena that nature and the world of things have to offer: the transparency of a drop of water, the diffuse smoke of a cigarette, condensation in which the light refracts, crystalline ice formations, reflections, steam and fog. Through the lens of his camera, he isolated these optical phenomena and translated them into images of austere, graphic beauty. “We are surrounded – whether we take note of it or not – by a world full of lawful wonders” Peter Keetman recorded in later years. To make these wonders visible was what he saw as his task as a photographer.
(Julian Sander Galerie)

Keetman’s Light Pendulum Oscillations, created in various forms between 1948 and 1955, were very much in demand for advertising on account of their abstract nature which made them highly adaptable. In these photos, Keetman departed from the traditional purpose of photography, which is to capture the world around us. Instead, he captured only the trace of light created by a torch attached to a swinging wire or rope above the camera’s shutter in a darkroom. What emerged from these oscillations were filigree, rhythmically structured shapes – pure “light paintings” – or, as Gottfried Jäger puts it, “images without words”. Faced with this extensive series, Gerd Sander chose to purchase only a single photograph. It was a carefully thought-out decision as he intentionally chose the same photograph that Otto Steinert had previously selected for his 1952 catalogue for the first exhibition of subjektive fotografie.
(Ralf Sachsse, from: Galerie Julian Sander, Keetmann. Gerd Sander Collection, 2023)