Axel Breutigam

After a long and successful career as an attorney and CPA in his native Hamburg, Germany, Axel Breutigam sold his company and relocated to Vancouver, British Columbia to pursue his lifelong passion of photography. Although Breutigam is autodidactic, his images display an acute technical knowledge of photography. 

For the past eight years he has split his time between Vancouver and Palm Springs. It was during this period that Breutigam began to study under Alan Ross, Ansel Adams’ former assistant, and the exclusive printer of Adams’ Yosemite Special Edition Negatives. Under Ross, Breutigam enhanced his technical skill and was taught how best to use digital processing techniques that emulate the darkroom prints of earlier decades. Despite the brevity of his artistic career, Breutigam has established himself as an emerging black and white photographer with a distinct and technically sophisticated style. Intriguing perspectives, bold lighting and abstract geometric shapes are characteristic of his evocative, timeless compositions. 

Breutigam’s subtle geometric abstractions, aversion to excessive digital manipulation, and penchant for sharply focused, tonally rich, and high contrast photographs draws parallels to the straight photography style pioneered by members of the West Coast Photographic Movement, which included renowned photographers Edward Weston, Paul Strand, and Ansel Adams. Breutigam’s motifs of abstraction and sharply focused forms make his photographs remarkably contemporary, while the traditional techniques he practices imbue his photographs with a timeless quality that recalls this earlier movement.