Contact
0034 646868361
contact@gunnarknechtel.com
Link to my editorial website: https://gunnarknechtel.com/
I was born in Kelkheim, Germany, in 1970 and have been living in Barcelona since 2000. After studying photography at the Lette Verein Berlin, I moved to London, where I began photographing for magazines, focusing on feature stories, architecture, and portraits.
My editorial clients include magazines such as The Guardian, The Observer, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, Stern, Colors Magazine, El País Semanal, Ojo de Pez, Apartmento, and Monocle.
In addition to my assignments, I dedicate much of my time and passion to photographing my personal projects. In recent years, I have focused on photographing cities built from scratch on undeveloped land. I have documented the realities of utopian cities such as Brasília, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, Chandigarh by Le Corbusier in India, and Astana in Kazakhstan.
My photographic work explores overlooked liminal spaces, uncovering their untold stories. From portraying shanty towns in Madrid to capturing people living in caves formed by lava in the Canary Islands, and the unconventional urban landscapes of cities like Astana, Brasília, and Chandigarh, to Fronton Walls in rural Spain, I remain committed to capturing the diverse array of human experiences.
Most of my photographic practice is rooted in long-term research and focuses on marginal, overlooked, and liminal spaces—sites where historical ambition, ideology, and landscape converge. These environments, often detached from their original function and partially reclaimed by nature, exist in a state of temporal and spatial ambiguity.
They are neither fully anchored in the past nor clearly situated in the present.
Rather than presenting photography as a documentary tool or a bearer of factual information, my work proposes the image as an open field of interpretation. The observer is not confronted with explanatory data, precise locations, or linear narratives. Instead, the photographs function as visual propositions that challenge conventional readings of time, space, and history.
In my work, borders become fluid rather than fixed. Distinctions between past and future, nature and culture, reality and projection dissolve, allowing the image to operate beyond categorization. The photographic frame does not seek to define or stabilize meaning, but to hold uncertainty—inviting the viewer into a perceptual space where multiple temporalities coexist.
By engaging with ruins, utopian architectures, and peripheral landscapes, my practice explores how societies leave traces of themselves in the world, and why certain remnants are preserved while others disappear. These sites act as catalysts for reflection, prompting questions about memory, collective imagination, and the persistence of human aspiration within the contemporary landscape.
Awards:
1999: the Observer Hodge Award , “Daily Life in China”, UK
2005: Festival Internacional de Fotografía de Tenerife Fotonoviembre, ¨Chabolas de Madrid¨, Spain
2014: Natja Award, USA
2018: PDN Award
2023: Winner of portfolio review at Revelat Festival, ¨Fronton walls in Spanish Villages.¨
2023: Shortlisted at Belfast Photo Festival,¨Fronton walls in Spanish Villages.¨
2023: Shortlisted at open call of Getxophoto Festival,¨Fronton walls in Spanish Villages.¨
2023: Shortlisted at open call of Athens Photo Festival,¨Fronton walls in Spanish Villages.¨
2025: Shortlisted Sony World Photography Awards, ¨Between Ruins and Sacred Stones¨
2025-26: Grant from Bildkunst, Kulturwerk supporting my ongoing photographic research project ¨Ruins and Sacred Stones in Europe¨.
Exhibitions:
2003: Overbeck Gesellschaft, Lübeck, Photography and everyday reality
2005: Fotonoviembre, Center of Photography Isla de Tenerife, Chabolas de Madrid
2005: Spectrum Sotos Gallery, Chabolas de Madrid
2011: Gallery One and a Half, London, Behind Bars
2021: Oberfett Gallery, Hamburg, Birds of Barcelona
2024: Fineart Festival Igualada, Fronton Walls in Spanish Villages
2024: Revelat Festival, Fronton Walls in Spanish Villages
