Wolfgang Tillmans - Tate Modern

'If one thing matters, everything matters'. This title of an earlier Tillman's project helped to unlock his photography for me. His work encompasses a vast array of bewildering imagery from car headlamps to plant pots on windowsills, Concorde, the moon, Gay clubs in Berlin, a t-shirt hanging on a peg, a skinhead pissing on a chair; if one thing matters, everything matters. This quote has been a mantra of previous artists, like Robert Rauschenberg, in an attempt to break the art establishment grip on what is perceived to be the correct way to approach making art - breaking down hierarchies of subject, object, medium and materials.

In a 2003 Guardian interview Tillmans states:

'I'm driven by an insatiable interest in the manifold shapes of human activities, in the surface of life, and as long as I enjoy how things are pointless and hugely important at the same time, then I'm not afraid'.

The article's author goes on to say that:

'It is a truism that the camera can only reveal surfaces, light and its absence. But there are other things in the photograph, too: subject, composition, order, viewpoint, proximity, scale, size, print quality and so on, not to speak of time, human emotional affinities, and whatever it is we might want, knowingly or not, when we come to look. All these entangled elements inform the way we read both singular images and entire bodies of work. There is always a lot of context, and there is more recontextualising going on all the time. The culture of the photograph matters.'

So it seems that what the photographer makes of his work and what the viewer finds in it are not always connected. 'The death of the author' and all that... I find this to be true. In Tillman's work I can connect to some elements of Gay experience and not others. No doubt some may find the image that Tillman's made as an airline passenger of a food tray, complete with his friend's pink cock slapped on top, to be wilfully shocking - others see it as just part of the fun of everyday life. As a photographer Tillman's captures the mundane in a special way, often using light to make something deeper of the image; making abstract interplays of light and form and colour, or as a comment on our contemporary culture - take your pick...

As a photographer myself I connect with the language of visual culture that permeates Tillman's work; although primarily a street photographer I see elements of Gary Winogrand's ethos of photographing the world to see what it looks like. Tillman's goes even further, experimenting with process, making abstracts from film chemicals and rolls of paper.

Tillmans hangs his exhibitions using small bulldog clips, or taped directly to the walls; he uses plain white frames too, that give an element of consistency to the look of the exhibition. Prints are placed large and small together and appear at varying heights and groupings. There is a visual connection to each grouping that helps to tie the whole look together.

Whether at the current exhibition at Tate Modern, or previous projects, or from his books I always look at Tillman's work and think about the people, places, things in Western society; connecting stuff that we manufacture, purchase, surround ourselves with; the art we make; the people we know and love and interact with in our daily lives. I look at his work and think about the vast contemporary culture we are all part of and wonder what is it all for and what does any of it mean?