“Urban Transfer Global Narratives” 

"The Space in which we move is full of photographs that we never see” (Clive Scott)

Karl Adams (Armando Carlo Adamo b. 1965) presents his new solo show, Urban Transfer, from Frebuary 3 to 12, 2022, in the Gallery am Lindenhof (Zurich).

Karl Adams achieved a Master in Professional Photography at the John Kaverdash Academy in Milan (Italy).

Applied and attentive, he held meticulous photographic journals aiming to perfect and document his technique tirelessly. A chronicler of metropolitan spaces, Karl Adams has traveled the world documenting urban iconography through the lens of his legendary Leica.

Recently two of his photographs received the Leica Master Shot mention by Leica online Photography International Magazine (LFI) due to their symmetrical composition and sharpness. This applies to the “Lunar” (Bangkok, Thailand 2019), where round windows pierce the white building’s surface, created an unexpected Dalmatian pattern. Electricity cables cross the image, disrupting the dots’ playful rhythm and pushing the power line to the foreground, splitting the photograph into four irregular quadrants.

In this constellation, the wires’ transmission function became the protagonist of the narrative. Karl Adams fascination with urban architecture is recognizable in this work, echoing the historical romance between photography and architecture, retraceable to 1830, when the young medium’s long exposure times favored immobile objects.

The extraordinary high resolution and finesses details of his photos recalls the expensive 99 Cent (1999) from photographer Andreas Gursky (b.1955). A recurrent feature in both artists’ work is the deliberate lack of distinction between the image’s plans, thus inviting the viewer to elaborate on the visual information.

From an art-historical perspective, street photography has two essential hallmarks: First, it depicts all urban life predicaments as temporary; second, it facilitates “a sense of the instantaneous as the corridor into a certain kind of truth” (Clive Scott 2007).

The photographic moment rescues everyday life from ephemerality.

According to linguist Clive Scott, instantaneousness is a state of hypersensitive alertness, and it is precisely this quality in Karl Adams street shot that we cherish the most.

The eloquence of the photographer’s visual language features the city, a public stage, for intimate performance exposing global tales.

Lic.Veronica Cuomo (Art Historian Curator) - February 2022 - Zurich