Barbara Probst: The Moment in Space

Born in 1964 in Munich, Barbara Probst studied sculpture at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich and photography at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. After starting out as a sculptor, she has been working on photographic series entitled “Exposures” since 2000. Each of these series consists of various representations of the same moment, generated by a multitude of cameras pointed at the same event or subject, from different angles and at different distances. Once the images are linked to each other, an enigmatic drama emerges from these sets, calling to mind different photographic genres (from portrait to still life, landscape or studio photography). Bringing to light the artefacts of the photographic process and focusing on representation strategies, Barbara Probst challenges our ability to decipher reality. The book features both her first emblematic works such as Exposure #1 (2000) and her most recent series created in 2018, Exposures # 138, 139 and 140. In his essay the author Frédéric Paul (curator at Centre Pompidou, Paris) explores the conceptual and theoretical background of Probst’s work by explaining her process of conceptualising and creating the exposures as well as aspects of installation and exhibition and the impact on the viewer.