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Alex Kempkens (born Alexander Kempkens, 24September 1942) is a German photographer, photojournalist and . He also writes articles and curates exhibitions. Kempkens is an autodidact.
Kempkens attended night school, but left before graduating in October 1966, to start a two-year internship as a photojournalist with Jürgen Retzlaff at the Düsseldorfer Nachrichten. In the second year of voluntary service, he worked at the Neuss city desk. From 1965 onwards Kempkens traveled regularly to Prague where he mixed with Czech climber friends he had met in 1964 in the Tatra Mountains. On1 May 1967 he was back in Prague and photographed the 1 May Parade as a reporter. Instead of photos of tanks and marching soldiers his photos showed young soldiers as Blues players as they walked with their girlfriends together in the parade. It was spring in Prague and the young soldiers showed that to them the Prague Spring already lived. A photo was published in the Düsseldorf Nachrichten after his return. Dusseldorfer Nachrichten, Nr. 102 vom 4. Mai 1967, S. 3.
In August 1968, he traveled with Jochen M. Raffelberg, who was also a volunteer with the Düsseldorf Nachrichten, to Biafra. Their report about the Biafra war received national attention.Alex Kempkens (Fotos), Jochen M. Raffelberg (Text): Überall diese Bilder des Grauens., In: Dusseldorfer Nachrichten Nr. 196, 197 und 200 vom 23., 24. und 28. August 1968. Five of the photographs were published on 2September 1968 as a double page spread in Der Spiegel magazine under the title "A nation is dying".Catalog World Press Exhibition 1968/1969, S. 58 und 60.
In 1973, he added architectural photography to his portfolio and from spring of 1975, Endoscopy photography for Architectural models.Alex Kempkens: Makro-fotografische Einblicke. Professional CamerA, JV-Journal-Verlag, München 1980. His endoscopy photos from the model of the new planned building for the German Parliament in Bonn, 1975, by the architectural firm Behnisch & Partner were published in 1976 the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The art critic of the newspaper, Doris Schmidt wrote a one-sided discussion of the planned new building of the Bundestag in Bonn.Doris Schmidt: Warten auf den Start. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Nr. 294 vom 18./19. Dezember 1976, S. 66. In the caption to the endoscope photos, she noted: This is the first time that a newspaper has published endoscopic images of an architecture model. Other publications of the endoscope photos followed. In particular, his endoscope photos of the planning to redesign the Königsplatz, Munich led to articles about his work in PM Magazine. Modellfotografie: Mit dem Endoskop ins Reich der Miniwelt. In: P.M. Magazin, Nr. 11 (1978), S. 11.
He also photographed with endoscopes for advertising and free experiments.Hermann Pfeiffer: 29. Stuttgarter Kalenderschau Graphik, Verlag Karl Thiemig, B 20341 E, März 1979, S. 1 und 22. In January 1980, he had a solo exhibition of his endoscopy photos in Munich. There then followed a series of publications in German magazines, such as in the ZEITmagazin.Eva Kirschenhofer: Ansichten aus der Ameisenperspektive. In: Zeitmagazin, Nr. 23 vom 30 May 1980, S. 38–39. In the magazine for professional photographers ProfiFoto Jürgen G. Gumprich wrote: And it's probably Alex Kempkens who deserves credit for having made this commonly medically attributed endoscopy technology into a socially acceptable practice in this country.Jürgen G. Gumprich: Alex Kempkens, Endographie. In: ProfiFoto, Nr. 4 (1981), S. 36–41. Gumbricht is referring to pictures published in almost all former German photography magazines such as Color Photo, Foto Revue and Nikon News for amateur and professional photographers.
As early as the autumn of 1982 he experimented with the image processing software then in May 1983 images of his experiments were published for the first time in the magazine Photo Revue.Jean Paul Laub, Programmkunst – Kunstprogramm? In: Photo Revue. Professional CamerA, Mai 1983, S. 138–145. His first digital images were used by DEC as the invitation card for the 1983 Systems fair in Munich. Systems'83 konnte Rekordzuwächse verbuchen. In: Computerwoche. In January 1984, the German magazine Chip published the digital images of the invitation card in the article From the Image to process. The author wrote,
It takes an artist's eye to discover in addition to the practical also the aesthetic benefit of this technique Image Processing. ... The result are color images in a mixture of reality and the irrational as it may be indicative of a whole era.The author of the article foresaw that in the next few years digital images, which until then were almost exclusively used in various industrial, medical and scientific fields, would be used in the computer art and graphics fields. Vom Bild zum Prozess. In: CHIP (Computerzeitschrift), 01/1983, S. 45.
The first solo exhibition of his experiments was entitled "Digital color photos" in January 1984 at the Art Light gallery in Munich. The exhibition was the reason that in the first issue of 1984 the magazine Form printed a four-page report on Kempkens and his digital art and publicity photos. The introduction to the article read, It's the classic side of computer graphics: they are typical computer images, these examples – or the fun of the artist with the computer. Filewrite! >>Pixles-Spiele<< – mit digitaler Fotografie. In: Form (Zeitschrift), Ausgabe 105 (1984), S. 42–45. 2D computer graphics The word "fun" used by the editor "refers to the then predominantly present fear of computers – in the profession of design, too.Susanne Päch: Computer-Portraits von Alex Kempkens. In: Novum, September 1985, S. 46–51. Klaus von Gaffron visited the solo exhibition and spoke to Kempkens and advised him to apply to become a member for the Professional Association of Visual Artists Munich and Bavaria (BBK).BBK Kempkens followed the advice and was accepted. In December 1985 his digital photo portraits appeared at the group exhibition Photography Portrait in the Gallery of the Artist of the BBK.Jutta Tezmen-Siegel, Alex Kempkens: Fotografie – Porträt, BBK – Berufsverband Bildender Künstler München u. Oberbayern, München 1985, .Fotografie – Porträt, Galerie der Künstler, München, 1985. , P 33,
In early 1985 Kempkens proposed to the Exhibition Committee of the BBK that a group exhibition of computer art be held at the Gallery of Artists in Munich. His concept was accepted in the fall of 1985 and the exhibition Bilder Images Digital took place in October 1986 in the Gallery of the Artist.Helga Biesel: Berufsverband Bildender Künstler entdeckt Computer als Handwerkszeug. Ausstellung: Digital belebte Kunstwelt. In: Computerwoche, 14. November 1986. He organized, curated the exhibition and showed his own works.Copper Giloth, Lynn Pocock-Willians: A Selected Chronology of Computer Arts: Exhibitions, Publications, and Technology. In: Art Journal, Nr. 3 (1990), , S. 292. At the exhibition, he produced the catalog "Bilder Images Digital, computer artist in Germany '86".Alex Kempkens, Barbara Kempkens (Hrsg): Bilder Images Digital: „Computerkünstler in Deutschland 1986“, Barke Verlag, 1986, Seiten 255, , ; (). The slogan on the exhibition poster was The focus of the exhibition is the statement of the picture. Kempkens also explicitly emphasized this in the preface to the catalog when he wrote, We exhibit pictures. It was planned by him as a clear distinction between computer images and computer graphic thereby anticipating the coming dominance of digital imagery.
Parallel to the exhibition, he organized a symposium and a workshop in the gallery of the artist. To the symposium he had the first computer art pioneers among other Frieder Nake and Georg Nees invited. The moderator of the conference was Richard Kriesche. The critic of the Munich evening newspaper, Peter M. Bode, wrote about the symposium: The computer artists thus argue that the sparks fly ... something like the passionate discussions that there must have been when photography first appeared.
The pioneer of this art, Georg Nees, wrote in a letter to the newspaper "Bilder Digital",Georg Nees: Die Situation der Computerkunst in der BRD. In: BilderDigital, Nr. 1 (1988), S. 27. , .
I may with the greatest satisfaction to say that I have never experienced in the short history of computer art so haunting event, such as the Munich Symposium.For the exhibition Nees created a game world in a new series of architectural drawings.Georg Nees: Künstliche Kunst und Künstliche Intelligenz. In: Alexander Kempkens und Barbara Kempkens (Hrsg.): Bilder Images Digital: „Computerkünstler in Deutschland 1986“, Barke Verlag 1986, , Seiten 58–67 und 112–119. Nees wrote in his letter also that he liked very much the talks with the young generation of computer artists at the symposium.
At the workshop and for the first time in Germany, an art exhibition showed six Amiga 1000s with a connected video station and color printer for young and old visitors to experiment with. Visitors could paint images in 4096 colors and print them in color. About the video station analog images been converted to digital images. The visitors used then this data to create new digital images with the Amiga 1000. The results could also be printed in color and put at the wall of the workshop.Alex Kempkens: Bilder Images Digital. In: BilderDigital – Zeitung für Art und Advertising mit dem Computer, Nr. 1 (1988), S. 17, .
For the exhibition Bilder Images Digital Kempkens scrapped an IBM computer system, calling the actions and performance Computer Burger. This computer system had cost more than a decade ago with the purchase by a company for about one million German marks. The event took place in September 1986 at a recycling plant for cars and others in Munich. The computer was transformed into a pile of junk. The scrap was packed in a metal barrel and as Computer Burger placed in the entrance hall of the Gallery of the Artist. A video of the event was produced and on show beside the Computer Burger.Johannes Glötzner: Schrott Verse. In: BilderDigital, Nr. 1 (1988), S. 19, , . Alex Kempkens: Computer-Burger. In: BilderDigital, Nr. 2 (1986) vom 24. Oktober 1986, S. 6–9.
Starting in 1987, following other exhibitions of his works, Ferdinand Ullrich commissioned Kempens to develop and produce the computer game Zeche Recklinghausen II. The adventure of a miner in 1903 – 1913 for the exhibition "Work and Rhythm" at the Ruhrfestspiele. This came from an idea of Ullrich.Ferdinand Ulrich: Arbeit und Rhythmus, Katalog der 41. Ruhrfestspiele, Recklinghausen 1987. In 1987, he was invited by Richard Kriesche to the group exhibition "Blurring boundaries 1" in the Künstlerhaus Graz. The symposium for the exhibition was held in Venice.Richard Kriesche: Entgrenzte Grenzen, Graz/Venedig, Edition Arge Alpen Adria, 1987.
Kempkens' Photos of Old Montreal have been exhibited in the gallery Le Compagnonnage, which he founded in 1992. He published the book Pierres de chants de Montréal for this exhibition.Alex Kempkens: Pierres des chants de Montréal : Vieux Montréal = Old Montreal, Galerie Le Compagnonnage, Montreal 1992, , (Text in English und French). The text in the book by Monique Brunet-Weinmann Dialectic of the Wall and the Way, La dialectique du Mur et de la Voie describes the result as
En cette année du trois cent cinquantième anniversaire de sa fondation, il est admirable qu'un citoyen nouveau venu, nous rappelle le plan fondateur de Ville-Marie, dessiné par les solides fondations de ses bâtiments. Puisse-t-on entendre ces pierres des Chants (...).Brunet-Weinmann compares the photos to the etching of Paris, Charles Meryon at the time of Baudelaire drew. The buildings in Old Montreal had not been photographed individually and isolated, as is usual in architectural photography, but Kempkens has photographed the buildings incorporated into the growing environment of the urban landscape. The architecture of the Old Montreal photos were on show in 1997 parallel with the Le Mois de la Photo in Montreal again in a solo exhibition in Bonsecours Market.In this year of the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its founding, it is admirable that a newly arrived citizens can help us recall the old plans of Ville-Marie, skechet by the solid base of its buildings. May we hear these singing stones ....
In autumn 1992 Kempkens was invited by Jacques Charbonneau, founder of the "Centre Copie-Art" in Montreal, to be an artist in residence at the "Gallery Arts Technologiques du Centre Copie Art". Charbonneau, Jacques (1943). In: Dictionary of Quebec Sculpture in the 20th Century. In January 1993, he had his first solo exhibition there entitled What is the prince looking for in the forest?, Que cherche le prince dans la forêt?Alex Kempkens: Was sucht der Prinz im Wald?, eine Frage in der real existierenden virtuellen Realität = Que cherche le prince dans la forêt?, une question dans la réalité existentielle de l’existence virtuelle. Centre Copie art Galerie Arts Technologiques Montréal, Visual Art Team, München 1993, , . He was an active member of the "Centre Copie-Art". There were other solo and group exhibitions in the Gallery Arts Technologiques and in other galleries in Montreal.
These fairies and water virgins, usually in the foreground, not wearing a swimsuit, but they play with each other when they are in pairs. It is the computer artist not unlike Arnold Böcklin. The Rhine maidens of Kempkens own presence, and they produce the present.Fahr refers in his text to the images of the exhibition Provider in an Other Time at the 23rd Duisburg Akzente. Kempkens had in Duisburg, as well as in Montreal, the images of young women of the town merged with the current architecture of the urban landscape and the Rhine landscape. The correspondence on the subject and the images of the exhibition "What is the prince looking for in the forest?" Where he can look for the princess in the modern city of the prince and not in the woods of fairy tales. Arenz published, under his chosen title "Satori in Montreal" in the 2004 edition the poems in English and French with the pictures by Kempkens.Alex Kempkens: Satori in Montreal. Gedichte in französischer und englischer Sprache & Bilder von Alex Kempkens. In: Der Mongole wartet, Nr. 14 (Oktober 2004), S. 298–319.
In November 2014 architectural photos by Kempkens from 1975 were published in the book "Helmut von Werz – An architect Life 1912–1990" and shown at the exhibition "Helmut von Werz" at the Munich Architecture Gallery. Website der Architekturgalerie München. Cordula Rau und Georg von Werz (Hrsg.): Helmut von Werz – Ein Architektenleben 1912–1990, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel 2014, , , S. 151–153 und 177–179.
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