Reiner Riedler was born in Gmunden, Austria and went to Vienna with the intention of studying ethnology. He then attended a College for photography (Graphische) in Vienna and decided to dedicate himself solely to photography. Master Studies of Image Sciences at the Danube University of Krems.
He is a documentary photographer and deals with important topics of the present day. His view always centers on human beings and their environment. The main focus of his documentary work is to challenge our value systems. As a traveller he visits the periphery of our habitats, always searching for the fragile beauty of human existence with its desires and abysses. His recent conceptual works question the nature of photography and the way, how we look at the world surrounding us.
Reiner Riedler’s work has been shown in numerous countries at photo festivals, galleries and museums. He has been working for periodicals and magazines.
I am incredibly interested in Rielder’s works as they study the area of medical equipment and capturing a very sharp and clear depiction of them, making them the main focal point of his photographs. I especially like the way that he attaches the photographs overtop of a plain black background as to highlight the equipment even more as being the main area of focus.
Medical equipment plays a very big part within my area of study and Riedler has displayed exactly what I want to display within my personal study.
Riedler has produced a series of photographs followed by photobooks. An example of one of his books was one named ‘Sweat’. I really liked how his photographs turned out within this photobook as they produce an almost nightmarish looking series of photographs that were just produced from the formation of his sweat.
Within this photobook, Vreni Hockenjos stated that “Reiner Riedler has discovered sweat as an artistic form of expression. Fascinated by the image captured by the sweat on his T-shirt after jogging – like a spontaneous self-portrait – he has used the sweat produced by others to create a series of images. In order to achieve this, he approached the renowned Fraunhofer Institute in Munich which provided him with a special sensory material that could be placed above or underneath his perspiring models. In doing so, Riedler used the sweaty body as a kind of rubber stamp to create life-size negatives. He then photographed these and transformed them into monochrome paper prints.“
Image analysis
Here is one of Riedler’s photographs which contains an image of medical equipment. I was incredibly inspired by his series of photographs that follow this same theme.
I really enjoy how simple yet effective these images have turned out and I believe that using a simple, flat-coloured background, has really highlighted the importance of the equipment.
The image is incredibly clear which definitely showcases it’s importance within the photograph. The background doesn’t challenge the image of the equipment which makes it easier to see the entirety of it.