Galerie Benjamin Eck shows the exceptional photographers Valentina Murabito and Susanna Kraus.

From January 18 to March 3, 2018, Galerie Benjamin Eck will present in the exhibition "ANALOG. Valentina Murabito | Susanna Kraus "two photographers using unique techniques in analogue photography. Both artists will be present at the opening on 18.1. from 7 to 10pm in the Zieblandstrasse 19 in Munich. Art historian Suzan Kizilirmak will give an introduction to the opening.



The extraordinary thing about Valentina Murabito's (* 1981) photographic works is that she creates fantastical mythical creatures in the darkroom. In the exhibition she will present people with beaks ("The Blue Hour") or peaceful goats, who become fighting bulls, as in "Vite sacre". She taps for inspiration from mythology and philosophy. Her discovery after 15 years of experimenting in the darkroom allows her to create these beautiful creatures. In the history of photography, it has only been possible to modify the surface by scratching, scratching, tearing or sewing.

Murabito dissolves the photosensitive layer, i. e. photo emulsion, from paper and reshapes it. Something as impossible as photo paper and photo emulsion become one. In addition, the Italian photographer developed her works on different materials, such as wood, concrete, steel or entire walls and integrated, as a fresco in the church, in the architecture. In Munich, she will show works on wood, steel and large format watercolor paper.

Valentina Murabito studied in Catania / Italy and Budapest / Hungary at the Academy of Arts and lives today as a freelance Artist in Berlin.



Susanna Kraus (* 1957) uses the world's only analogue direct image camera, the IMAGO Camera, which creates 1: 1 human images. The exhibition will only show works that, like the series "Alice", were created with the IMAGO Camera. In "Alice" Kraus interprets the search for the identity of the protagonist from "Alice in Wonderland".

Together with Annegret Kohlmeyer, the artist removed flowers and plants from their surroundings and colors, turning them, as in "Tulips IV", into artificial objects full of intensity and gloom.

Her father, Werner Kraus, invented the camera in 1970 on behalf of Daimler-Benz to include technical methods and further developed it with the sculptor Erhard Hößle. In the IMAGO camera, the photograph is created by direct exposure on a silver gelatin direct positive paper and on a scale of 1: 1. Immediately after the exposure, the resulting original is developed in a chemical process.1978 the production of the paper was discontinued.

In 2006, Susanna Kraus was able to convince ILFORD to reissue the direct positive paper and align it with her artistic needs. The exhibition shows original prints. Susanna Kraus studied at the renowned Otto Falckenberg drama school, played 25 years i.e in the Kammerspiele in Munich, before she learned the craft of IMAGO Camera as an autodidact. She continues to play in films and lives in Berlin.