about the artist :
Reinhard Gorner

Libraries are both shelters and places of escape. It is this feeling that German photographer Reinhard Görner has been exploring for many years, in search of the most beautiful and solemn reading rooms around the world.

Intimate libraries nestled in the heart of secluded abbeys or grandiose halls of prestigious universities, for the German artist, these rooms are an inexhaustible reservoir of inspiration. Let yourself be transported through architectures, styles and eras in this portrait of Reinhard Görner, a self-taught artist with a multifaceted and contagious passion. As an architectural photographer, Reinhard worked for many years for architects before deciding to focus on his passion. His goal is to explore how the great masters of architecture have created spaces that breathe beauty and silence by playing with shadows, light, proportions, rhythms. He quickly discovered that libraries have always been and still are wonderful playgrounds for architects, allowing them to focus on the question of form and emptiness: "I see myself as an ambassador trying to convey the spirit of these builders with my photographic means".

The artist photographed and fell in love with his first library in 2005, as he was working with architect Sir Norman Foster and captured the philological library of Berlin's Frei Universität. Since then, the cathedral-like atmosphere of New York's Rose main reading room made a long-lasting impact on the artist and he started to intensify his documentation of libraries across the world. Görner's photographs seek to convey the impact architecture has on our awareness of life : the libraries he captures open spaces, tell stories and refer to a time when one's sense of aestethics and sense of space were identical. Görner's photos refer to the vastness great architecture has been celebrating throughout history, bringing to mind historical periods where beauty and tranquility meet. His work pays a tribute to the Becher art school. Like other disciples' – Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff and Candida Höfer – Görner's work is strictly conceptual, combined with a fine technical approach. All their works demonstrate the same fascination for typology and record the heritage of the western cultural and industrial past.

Videos :

Two Men of Letters - Schagl Abbey Library / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 62,5 in (127 x 158,7 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5801
Schlierbach Abbey Library / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 62,5 x 50 in (158,7 x 127 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
9769
Open Space II - City Library, Stuttgart / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 62,5 in (127 x 158, 8 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5201
Assemblée Nationale II / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 62.5 in (127 x 159 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5173
George Peabody Library II, Baltimore USA / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 62,5 x 50 in (158, 8 x 127 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
Price on request
5419
Salle Labrouste I / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 50 in (127 x 127 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5873
Wren library, Cambridge / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 62 in (127 x 159 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5980
Archivo general de indias, Sevilla / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 50 in (127 x 127 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5670
Library of Duchess Anna Amalia, Weimar / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 52 x 50 in (132 x 127 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
6196
The Cohen room, Oxford / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 57 x 50 in (146 x 127 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
4512
Library of Congress IV Washington / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 51 x 50 in (130 x 127 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
4588
Saint Peter's Abbey library / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 40 x 60 in (102 x 152 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5253
Neustift Abbey library / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 59 in (127 x 151 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
4726
Books, clocks and globes, national library, Prague / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 52 in (127 x 132 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
3222
Wiblingen Library / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 62 in (127 x 159 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
4561
Milich'sche Library, Görlitz / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 40 x 55 in (101.6 x 138.4 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
Price on request
4788
Milich'sche Library, Görlitz / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass
Image : 26 x 36 in (66 x 91,5 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
Price on request
4551
Rose Main Reading Room, New York Library / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 63 in (127 x 160.8 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
8732
Orangerie, Château de Versailles / Reinhard Gorner
Silver print mounted on aluminium, plexi or resin
Image : 50 x 75 in (127 x 190,5 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 10 copies
8,810 US$
807
Musée d'Orsay II, Paris / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on Aluminium, plexi or resin
Image : 75 x 60 in (190 x 152 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 15 copies
8,810 US$
1955
Library Plantin Moretus, Antwerp, Belgium / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet print, mounted on aluminium, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 62 in (127 x 157 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
Price on request
1884
State Library, Berlin / Reinhard Gorner
Silver print mounted on aluminium, plexi or resin
Image : 58 x 55 in (152 x 144 cm)
Edition of 10 copies
8,810 US$
1896
Upper Lusatian Library of Sciences, Görlitz / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 56 in (127 x 141 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5854
The Grand Piano, Biblioteca Joanina / Reinhard Gorner
Fine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resinFine Art Lightjet Print, mounted on aluminum, plexiglass or resin
Image : 50 x 51 in (127 x 130 cm)
Edition of 2 EA + 25 copies
6,610 US$
5324