FRANK SCHASSE
Stairway to art

The Küppersmühle, a granary on the south side of Duisburg's inner harbour, which was built between 1908 and 1916 according to plans by the Kiefer brothers and Joseph Weiß, was converted and revitalised as part of the master plan. Until the 1970s, grain was still stored in the brick building; since 1999, it has been the Küppersmühle Museum of Modern Art (MKM), which houses the Ströher Collection, among other things.

The design for the conversion comes from the architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron. The architects show a measured approach to the building fabric: on the south façade of the old brick warehouse, the architects placed a new staircase made of red exposed concrete, which visually continues part of the main building with its roof pitch. Its simple, clear form is only interrupted by a vertical window slit. The spiral staircase and the balustrade are designed as a single cast. Their guiding line runs around an almost oval staircase eye in gentle loops.

Author
"It is an illusion that photos are taken with a camera... they are taken with the eye, the heart and the head."
Henri Cartier-Bresson

Frank Schasse is an architect and has been involved in photography since his student days. Both disciplines stem from the same quest: the attempt to give form to space, light and perception in a way that goes beyond the purely visible.
For him, photography is far more than the capture of a moment. It is an act of seeing – and, at the same time, of realisation. It is only through conscious observation that the world begins to transform. What is seen detaches itself from its mere reality and becomes a new image in which memory, mood, emotion and imagination merge. This gives rise to a reality of its own, which allows us to glimpse not so much the object itself as its very essence.

Website
www.frankschasse.com

Instagram
@photography_frank_s

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