Tom Fecht jumpstarted his artistic career in 1992 at Jan Hoet’s documenta IX. In the late 1990s he turned to photography as his preferred medium. Since then, he has created an extensive body of landscape, still-life and portrait work. In recent years, Fecht is in particular known for his innovative night photography and seascapes, capturing an important part of the human environment often invisible to the naked eye.

The large-scale, minimalist works of his extensive night cycle Dark Matters includes series like Eclipse, Nocturnes and Gravity Fields often hovering between the physical world and the unseen aspects of the universe, magically transforming natural phenomena hidden in the depths of time. The series Incertitudes, Cosmic Vertigo and his most recent micrographs Studies of Ancient Light apply advanced microscopic imaging, pushing his photographic experiments towards the edge of quantum physics – while gradually drawing the eye towards environmental phenomena much larger and older than us. New works in color include his series Luciferines and Tides, both exploring the magic of marine bioluminescence captured Entre Loup et Chien at dawn, recently presented at Galerie Zwirner Berlin.

Inspired by the Apollo missions and Kubrick’s cult film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), Fecht studied physics, thermodynamics and cybernetics at Columbia University NYC. He went on to study engineering and art history at the Technical University of Berlin. As a young engineer, Fecht was involved in the development of fax machines and computer-aided image processing at IBM and Control Data. In the early 1970s, Fecht was among the first wave of artists to move into the rough industrial lofts of lower Manhattan. He soon engaged with the vibrant Land Art scene, including Walter de Maria, Mike Heizer, and especially Robert Smithson and followed up on these connections during documenta 5 (1972) and 6 (1976). After a $5 job for Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s adventurous Valley Curtain in Colorado in 1972, wordsmith Gene Solon encouraged him to mobilise his scientific background and to explore Land Art on his own terms. His early installations For Gravity’s Sake (1971) or Spacetime Mirrors – The Lorentz Transformations, an intervention at the ‘infinite corridor’ of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT in Cambridge MA (1972), has been regarded as an artistic challenge to chaotic systems and an early attempt to transfer Smithson’s concept of site and non-site into the scientific realm.

Back in Berlin, he founded his own gallery and the Elefanten Press publishing house. Over the next two decades, Fecht worked as a gallery owner, exhibition designer, journalist, publisher, author, and editor, with a constant preoccupation with artistic, documentary, and historical photography becoming an integral part of his professional routine. When he finally gave up publishing to devote himself entirely to his artistic career, his early exploration of Land Art resurfaced two decades later with his memorial Mémoire nomade at documenta IX in 1992.This memorial of Names and Stones in partnership with the German Aids Foundation successively expanded into over 40 permanent and temporary installations, and finally transformed into a European network of local memorials over the next ten years. Still active and expanding by annual additions of Name-Stones to public and museum installations over the past 30 years, his memorial anchored itself in urban networks and contemporary mourning culture. Stemmed from Land-Art, his expansive Epitaph is regarded today as the European equivalent to the American Quilt Memorial. Dealing with hurt love and death in a multilayered work, Fecht refers to this transformative decade 1992 – 2002 as his artistic ‘Street- Academy’.

In 1999, Fecht moved from Berlin to Paris-Montparnasse and started an intense period of experimental studio work in which he was finally able to ‘spit out’ all those images that had accumulated in numerous sketchbooks and occupied his imagination over many years. These included primarily body and movement studies, often in collaboration with choreographers, professional dancers and models from the Paris opera, ballet and urban music scenes. He soon expanded his portfolio to land- and seascapes and refined his large-format photography; often supplemented by portrait commissions also including the New York Times. A working residency in London finally expanded his artistic practice into high-tech and scientific imaging; Fecht has since developed his own photographic and technical patents and has taught at Cornell University NY, the Royal College of Art and Imperial College in London, occasionally also lecturing at ETH Zurich.

Becoming a father in 2008 turned into a unique opportunity to re-evaluate his artistic work; sacrificing daytime shooting to his young daughter his focus gradually shifted towards the magic of the night. Today he designs his own image machines continuously exploring the intersecting layers of three very different chaotic systems: waves, weather and cosmic radiation captured in an alchemical mix of unpredictable phenomena. The waves of the open Atlantic, the permanent weather transformation above and the seasonal and cosmic effects of planetary rotation merge into a systematic artistic approach, gradually drawing the eye towards phenomena much larger and older than us. When it comes down to the thin red line that marries most of Fecht’s recent work, the prime suspects are veiled in their very own magic: Time and Gravity.

Since 2012-2013, Fecht’s works have been unique pieces, regularly presented at TEFAF in Maastricht and New York and featured in museum exhibitions and permanent collections. Among them are the Neue National Galerie and the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Royal College of Art London, Museum DKM Duisburg, Museum Folkwang Essen, MuCEM Marseille, Musée des Beaux-Arts LAAC Dunkerque, Musée des Beaux-Arts Liège and the photographic collection of the New York Public Library. In Switzerland, his work has been presented several times at Art Basel, Design Miami/Basel, and Helmhaus Zürich. His permanent installation EPITAPH – Names and Stones is embedded at the Fraumünster in Zurich under the stained-glass windows by Marc Chagall in the aps. Fecht’s works are represented in numerous corporate – and private collections in Europe, North America, Brazil and Asia.

Tom Fecht likes to think, his cameras have ears and to listen with his eyes, re-evaluating the chaotic system he became himself. Born in the land of Hesse, Germany he lives and works in Berlin and Geneva, his work is centered around his studio on the Atlantic coast in Brittany, France.

2023

LAND’s END
Unique Vintage Prints
Galerie Podgrony Robinson Gallery, Saint Paul de Vence (Nice/FR)

GRAVITY
Hugo Franca meets Tom Fecht #2
Unique Silk Prints and Sculpture
Galerie Bolsa de Arte, Saõ Paulo and Proto Alegre (BR)

LUCIFERs VORTEX – Unique Vintage Prints
Laffanour Galerie DOWNTOWN, Paris (FR)

LIQUID LIGHT
Tom Fecht and Nicole Stäglich
Galerie Elle Suvretta House, St. Moritz (CH)

GET TOGETHER
Group Show
BcmA Gallery, Berlin (DE)

2022

LIQUID LIGHT
Tom Fecht and Nicole Stäglich
Galerie Elle, Zürich (CH)

EROS – AWAITING ETERNITY
Group Show
Museum DKM, Duisburg (DE)

INCERTITUDE
Unique vintage prints curated by Rudolf Zwirner and Hubertus von Amelunxen
GRUNEWALDER EXHIBITIONS Conversations and Concerts
GALERIE ZWIRNER, Berlin (DE)

2021

LUCIFERs VORTEX
Night Photography
Museum DKM, Duisburg (DE)

2020

The Blue Hour, Photographic Installation
The West Pole Series
FOG Design + Art, San Francisco USA
Galeria Mercado Moderno, Rio de Janeiro (BR)

ECLIPSE
Unique Vintage Prints
Laffanour Galerie DOWNTOWN Paris (FR)

CAMERAWORKS
Contemporary Photography by Elisabeth Brockmann, Peter von Felbert, Jens Heilmann,
Tom Fecht, Achim Graf, Florian Thomas
GALERIE WITTENBRINK, Munich (DE)

2019

APLOMB – Hugo Franca meets Tom Fecht
Unique Silk Prints and Sculpture curated by Mirian Badaro
GALLERIE BOLSA DE ARTE, Saõ Paulo and Porto Allegre (BR)

30 YEARS OF NOORDERLICHT
Retrospective curated by Wim Mellis
Martini Plaza, Groningen (NE)

2018

DARK MATTERs
Unique Vintage Prints
GALLERIE WITTENBRINK, Munich (D)

DEEP TIME
Permanent Installation at Museum DKM, Duisburg (D)

GRAVITY FIELDS
Unique Vintage Prints
TEFAF Maastricht and New York
Laffanour Gallery DOWNTOWN, Paris (F)

ELECTRIC CINEMA
The complete series  presented by
Galerie Laffanour DOWNTOWN Paris
Chateâu Siran, Bordeaux (F)

2017

GRAVITY FIELDS
Setareh Gallery, Düsseldorf (D)

DEEPTIME / TIEFENZEIT
Museum DKM, Duisburg (D)

GRAVITY MIRROR
Laffanour Gallery DOWNTOWN, Paris (F)

2016

MAGIC MOMENTS
Château Palmer, Margaux 2016 (F)

PROUVÈ – TAKIS
Collection François Laffanour
La Patinoire Royale, Brussels 2016 (BE)

2015

Entre 6 & 8
Galerie Saluden, Quimper 2015 (F)

Downtown @ Monaco
ELECTRIC CINEMA
Colombia Gallery, Monaco 2015

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 1989 – 2014

RETOUR DE MER
Curated by Jean Attali
Musée des Beaux-Arts LAAC, Dunkerque 2014 (F)

MASTERPIECES (Group show)
Galerie Downtown Paris, 2014 (F)

MAGIC DIVAN – A portrait of Daniel Barenboim
and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.
Installation for “An Ocean of Possibilities”
at Noorderlicht Photofestival Groningen (NE)
and Singapore International Photography Festival (SIPF), 2014

The Water Line – Video installation for “The Politics and Pleasures of Food”
funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes, ACC Galerie Weimar, 2014 (D)

Surface tension – An accidental meeting of ocean and slaughterhouse (with J. Zissovici).
ENSA École nationale d’architecture Malaquais. Galerie J. Callot, Paris 2013 (F)

Equilibre Les Vivres de l’Art / Fondation du Patrimoine.
Photo installation in the former slaughterhouse of Bordeaux, 2013 (F)

Trait pour trait – Autoportraits
Galerie Saluden, Quimper 2012 (F)

Land’s end – Photographies
Galerie Saluden, Quimper 2010 (F)

Equilibrium
Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel 2009 (CH)

Ma couleur préférée
Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel 2009 (CH)

Names and Stones – Cold Square
New installation for the Art and Exhibition Hall
of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn 1993 / 2008 (D)

Fotografie – On Landscape
Galerie Schöneck, Basel 2008 (CH)

Unstern Sinistre Disastro – 7 Studies on Gravity
ACC Galerie, Weimar 2008 (D)

London Confidential – The Chinese Suite
Galerie Mews42 / Vanessa Suchar, London 2008 (UK)

All Under One Heaven – The Chinese Suite
Royal College of Art, London 2007 /(UK)

Finis Terrae – Seascapes and Photo-Glasses
Galerie Downtown, Paris 2007 (F)

Portraiture – The Chinese Suite
Eyestorm Gallery, London 2007 (UK)

Rendez-Vous – La Nouvelle Athènes. Seascapes.
Gallery Vanessa Suchar, Paris 2007 (F)

Namaste – Land and Seascapes.
Gallery Vanessa Suchar, London 2006 (F)

Cause and Effect – The Dust of Childhood.
Hartwell Gallery / Cornell University, NY 2005

Movement Into the Open – Seascapes.
Ahorn Grieneisen AG, Berlin 2005 (D)

Transformation – Seascapes
Art Home Gallery, Istanbul 2004 (Catalog) (TUR)

Silent Images – Photographs and Works on Paper.
Ahorn Grieneisen AG, Berlin 2004 (D)

Food For Thought: An Evening with Siegfried Zielinski.
Performance at V2 Dutch Electronic Art Fair, Rotterdam 2004 (NE)

BASICS – Uniques Verres Photographiques
Galerie François Laffanour DOWNTOWN, Paris 2003 (F)

Torso – Cité des Sciences, Paris 2003 (F)

Approaching the Unpredictable – Paper Art 8. Milk Skin (Milchhaut).
Installation at Leopold Hoesch Museum, Düren 2002 (Catalog) (D)

En Face – Gisèle Freund photographed by Tom Fecht.
Martin Gropius Bau – Werkbund Archiv / Museum der Dinge, Berlin 2001 (Catalog) (D)

Sense of Space – Noorderlicht Photofestival, Groningen 2001 (Catalog) (NE)

Homage – Galerie Nina Beskow, Paris Photo 2000 (F)

Kaltes Tor (Names and Stones)
Commission for EXPO 2000, Hanover (D)

Anatomie de la Tendresse – Portrait Studies
Galerie François Laffanour DOWNTOWN, Paris 1999 (F)

Wonderland – Norderlicht Fotofestival
Curated by Wim Mellis and Machiel Botman, Groningen 1999

Kunst auf Zeit – Group Show
Künstlerhaus Berlin, Berlin 1999

Mémoire nomade (NAMES and STONES) Urban Land Art Project 1992 – 2002.
Pan-European epitaph comprised of permanent and temporary installations
in major museums and public places across 40 cities curated by Ulrich Heide.
In collaboration with the German AIDS-Foundation, Bonn (D)

NAMES and STONES, Documenta IX (curated by Jan Hoet) Kassel 1992 (D)

DENKRAUM – Studies of an Endangered Body
in collaboration with the German AIDS Foundation and the
Berlin Doctors’ Council. Deutscher Reichstag, Berlin 1989 (D)

Museums

Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bonn, Germany
Karl Ernst Osthaus-Museum Hagen, Germany
Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bonn, Germany
MuCEM – Museé National des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée Marseille, France
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Liège, Belgium
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Museum DKM, Duisburg, Germany
Neue National Galerie / Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin (SMPK), Germany
New York Public Library NYC, USA

Corporate and private collections

Allianz Immobilien GmbH, Stuttgart
Ahorn Grieneisen AG, Berlin
Artprice.com – Collection Thierry Ehrman, Lyon
CERN Geneva, Switzerland
Dietrich Komossa Beteiligungen Düsseldorf, Germany
Sonja und Norbert Glahn Collection, Düsseldorf
Benoit Herault (Clos du Léthé), St. Mediers
Château Palmer Collection, Margaux
Christian Langlois-Meurinne, Paris
DKV AG, Berlin and Cologne
Decaux Collection, Paris
Nicolas Ferretjans, Zürich
Dietrich Komossa, Düsseldorf
François Laffanour, Paris
Christian Langlois-Meurinne, Paris
Françoise Louis, Liège
SheltonMindel Collection, New York
Guy Porré, Bruxelles
Claude Serra, Paris
Shinsegae Corporation Collection, Seoul
Vanessa Suchar-Marcus, San Francisco
Yumiko Seki, Paris
Société Financière St. James, Paris
Pierre Thonon, Liège
Eduard Viollier AG, Basel

Public Comissions

Seven Stones (Zen Garden with Yoshiyuki Kakaedo). EXPO 2000 Hanover, Germany
Chiffre (Relief). Hospice Hamburg, Germany 1998
L’amour blessé. Memorial at St. Peter”s Kirchhof, Frankfurt am Main, Germany 1994
Names and Stones. Permanent installations in 27 cities across Europe 1992-2011

Cold Square I, 1993. 200 stones, names, framed in brass 236 x 253 cm
Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany, Bonn

Names and Stones started at Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany in 1992 in collaboration with the German AIDS-Foundation. Over the next 10 years it developed into a pan-European epitaph comprised of sculptural installations in major museums and public places across 40 cities. The work includes a pendant body of 1000+ works on paper, entitled Milk Skins (Milchhäute). A photographic record unifies this geographically complex memorial, it still maintains an active role in contemporary memorial culture across Europe.

The entire project was documented and published in three successive editions: Ulrich Heide / Dietmar Kamper (ed.): Tom Fecht, NAMEN und STEINE – Mémoire Nomade
(Köln 1993, Bonn 1998, Springer Verlag Wien New York, 2001)

Names and Stones
Website

German Aids Foundation
Website

LAND ART / INSTALLATIONS / FLUXUS / HAPPENINGS

The Lorenz Equations – Challenging Chaotic Systems
Three video cameras predicting the unpredictable behaviour of Waves,
Weather and the Winds, Chicago IL 1976 / San Francisco CA 1977 (USA) / Tarifa 1978 (ES)

Quanteleien – Ein symphonisches Essay von Tom Fecht. Arbeitsmaterialien über Zeit, Raum und Relativität. Multiple in drei Sätzen. Edition Boczkowski, Berlin u. Kassel 1972

SpaceTime Mirrors – The Lorentz Transformations
Performance in the Infinite Corridor (MIThenge)
MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA 1972 (USA)

Slurry Temperatures – Nature in Fahrenheit
Big Ass Thermometers Encircling a Polluted Pond, Hartford County CT 1971 (USA)

For Gravity’s Sake (Little Trianon)
Triangles on Lake-Sites in Connecticut, 1971 (USA)
Curated and sponsored by Gene Solon, Hartford CT

H2O – Fluxus Film in Super8/15 Min, 1970 (D)

The Land where Milk and Honey Flow
Fluxus Performance at Museum Fridericianmum, Kassel 1969 (D)

On the Shitheap of Society (Installation)
Operations at Museum Fridericianmum, Kassel 1969 (D)

Nasty Pollution of the Station Forecourt (Happening), Bern 1968 (CH)
followed by a week of imprisonment (Üble Verschmutzung des Bahnhofsvorplatzes)

The Early Death of Our Democracy (Happening), Kassel Hbf 1967 (D)

Catalogues

TiefenZeit/DeepTime
Dirk Krämer and Klaus Maas (ed.): Tiefenzeit / DeepTime, Duisburg 2019.
Tom Fecht at Museum DKM – Exhibition catalogue
Introductions by Siegfried Zielinski and Emma Nilsson, essay by Irmgard Bernrieder.
ISBN 978-3-942650-13-7 (German/English edition)

INCERTITUDES
An introduction into DARK MATTERs
by Emma Nilsson and Gérard Klein
Published in Times of Uncertainty
Berlin / Munich / Paris, 2018
(English edition / PDF available upon request)

ECLIPSE – 25 unique vintage prints with an essay by Hans Irrek.
Galerie Downtown François Laffanour, Paris 2015
ISBN 978-2-9520349-4-4 (French/English edition)

Nocturnes – Unique vintage prints. Work in Progress.
Galerie Downtown Francois Laffanour, Paris 2014

Electric Cinema. Galerie Downtown Francois Laffanour, Paris 2013

The West Pole. Galerie Downtown Francois Laffanour, Paris 2012

Tom Fecht: All under One Heaven – The Chinese Suite 2005 – 2007, in: GoGlobal Rural-Urban. Edited by Ashley Hall and Peter Childs. p 60 – 91. Royal College of ART London and Tsinghua University Beijing, 2012. ISBN 978-7-5084-9423-4

Equilibre – Three Studies. Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel 2009

En Face – Gisèle Freund photographiert von Tom Fecht. Werkbund Archiv im Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin 2001

Tom Fecht – Namen und Steine, Mémoire Nomade. Edited by Ulrich Heide and Dietmar Kamper. Cologne 1993, Bonn 1998, Springer Verlag Wien New York, 2001

Wonderland. Exhibition catalogue curated for Noorderlicht by Wim Mellis and Machiel Botman. p. 46-51. Groningen (NE) 1999. ISBN 90-76703-03-5

Kunst auf Zeit – Eine Recherche. Künstlerhaus Berlin (ed). p 26-27 and 135-137. Berlin 1993 ISBN 3-89479-036-9

OPERATIONEN im Museum Fridericianum Kassel (Working Journal 16 July – 11 October 1969) Curated by Walther Hoffmann, Ursula Warnke and Pedro Warnke in collaboration with Arnold Bode. Kassel 1969

Photographs

Monika Haag/Mark Woodmann: The Blue Connection, Basel-Berlin-Geneva 2022
Marcus Loeber: Change, Hamburg 2022 (CD Cover)
Erwin Wortelkamp: Kunst trägt sich und uns, Köln 2021
Michael Petry: The Word is Art, London 2018
Hubert Neidhart: Sister Moon, Basel 2018 (CD Suite in 5 Faces)
Vivo A Beira, http://www.vivoabeira.org/, Paris/São Paulo 2/2017
Soundings, L. Karshan-C.Richardson, Satellite Berlin 5/2016
CRASH, Paris 10/2015
ECLIPSE, Galerie DOWNTOWN, Paris 1/2015
Jean Atali: Retour de Mer, Editions Dilecta, Paris 2014
Inventario, Milano 7/2014
The Cornell Journal of Architecture #9, NY 5/2013
Kunstforum International Vol 220 1/2013
GoGlobal Rural-Urban, London/Beijing 4/2012
selected views 12/11
Le Monde, Paris 6/11
Top Basel, 1/11
Ouest France, Rennes 7/10
Le Télégramme, Morlaix 7/10
FAZ, Frankfurt 10/09
Channel Thirteen, NYC 1/09
Les Conférences de Malaquais, Paris 10/08
The New York Times 9/08
Morgenbladet, Oslo 8/08
EQULIBRIUM, London 3/08
AXIS, Tokyo 10/07
Design, Beijing 6/07
Performance Research: On Beckett, Devon 3/07
Menschen, Bonn 1/07
O Globo, Rio de Janeiro 10/06
AXIS, Tokyo 10/06
The New York Times 8/06
Dialogue, Taiwan 3/06
new design, London 2/06
BLUEPRINT, London 1/06
Pure PSP, UK 1/06
Edge 1/06
Dialogue, Taiwan 12/05
DIE ZEIT, Hamburg 12/05
The Inquirer 11/05
Bladid, Iceland 11/05
BLUEPRINT, London 9/05
bob, Graz 1/05

Author / Editor

Tom Fecht: Chromatic Evolution in: Monika Haag/Mark Woodmann: The Blue Connection, Artists Press Basel-Berlin-Geneva 2022. ISBN 978-3-949990-99-1

Tom Fecht: EPILOG – Blue as a Quantum Field in: Monika Haag/Mark Woodmann: The Blue Connection, Artists Press Basel-Berlin-Geneva 2022. ISBN 978-3-949990-99-1

Tom Fecht: Inside-Out – Upside-Down in: Erwin Wortelkamp: Kunst trägt sich und uns, Köln 2021. ISBN 978-3-89770-553-1

Tom Fecht: ON SIGNATUREs in: ARIK LEVY FixingNature edited by Arik Levy Studio, Paris 2016

Tom Fecht: Mirror and Transformation in: FLUSSERIANA – An Intellectual Toolbox edited by Siegfried Zielinski and Peter Weibel. ZKM Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe and Univocal Publishing, Minneapolis 2015. ISBN 9-781937-561529

Tom Fecht: Refocusing the Euclidian Horizon in: The Cornell Journal of Architecture # 9 Mathematics – From the Ideal to the Uncertain. Ithaca, NY 2014

Tom Fecht: Towards Projection, in: Dessin et Représentation: Comment communique-t-on les idées? Les Conférences de Malaquais, ed. Jean Attali / Nasrine Seraji, Paris 2008

Broken Vision – The Projection of Surface and the Displaced Image. Tom Fecht and John Zissovici (ed), with an introduction by Moshen Mostafavi. Cornell University – Hartel Gallery, Ithaca NY, USA 10/2005 and Royal College of Art – Hockney Gallery, London UK 11/2005

Tom Fecht: Meine Planeten – Fotografien mit Texten von Hans Belting, Claudia Benthien, John Berger, Daniel Defert, Ute Guzzoni, Dietmar Kamper, Antonio Skarmeta, Susan Sontag, Paul Virilio und Siegfried Zielinski, in : bob 01 pp.50 – 65, Graz 2005

Tom Fecht: The Magic Demeanour of Floating Images. On Manu Kumar’s and Tom Heneghan’s Light Installation in: Con_Con Constructed Connections, Verlag Silke Schreiber, pp 43 – 49, Berlin / München 2004

Tom Fecht: Transformation in: Transformation – Paintings by Ismet Ergün. Exhibition catalogue Berlin and Istanbul, 2004

Tom Fecht: In Memoriam: Dietmar Kamper in: Janus No.10, Antwerp 2002

Tom Fecht and Dietmar Kamper (ed.): Umzug ins Offene – Vier Versuche über den Raum. Springer Verlag Wien New York, 2000

Tom Fecht: Die Stadt als ästhetisches Leitmotiv, in: Schriftenreihe Praktische Psychologie Vol. XXII, Hagen 1999

Tom Fecht: Die Ausstellung als Moderne Ruine. Parcours der Melancholie – Die Stadt als heimliches Leitmotiv, in: Kunstforum International, Die documenta X Vol. 138 pp 90-95, Ruppichteroth 1997

Tom Fecht: Käthe Kollwitz – Works in Color, Schocken Books / Random House, New York 1988. (Käthe Kollwitz – Das Farbige Werk, Elefanten Press Verlag Berlin 1987; Sara/Van Gennep, Amsterdam 1987; Alfabeta Bokförlag, Stockholm 1988)

Tom Fecht (ed): Politische Fotomontage in der Bundesrepublik und Westberlin. Berlin 1987

Thomas Fecht: Politische Karikatur in der BRD, Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1974

Other

Christian Jacobs (ed.): Way Home / Heimweg. Verlag für moderne Kunst, pp 62-64, Nürnberg 2004

En face – Tom Fecht portraitiert Gisèle Freund. Article by Enno Kaufhold in: Photonews Nr. 10, 13. Jhg. pp 8-9, Hamburg 2001

Verlorene Inhalte – Verordnetes Denkmal. Article by Stephanie Endlich, in: Beiträge zum Wettbewerb ’17 Juni 1953′, Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst, Berlin 2000

“Vergehende Räume – Zu Tom Fecht’s Installation Namen und Steine”. Article by Andreas Ruby in: neue bildende kunst Vol 6, pp 32-33, Berlin 1999

Photo Glass, Fotocurit®

Six Elements
DMP Architects, Munich
for Bosch and Siemens. Client: Aviva, Munich

Polaris
Henn Architects, Munich. Client: Volkswagen AG

Noah’s Arc
KSP Engel & Zimmermann Architects, Cologne. Client: DKV AG

In Free Fall
Client: Kardorff Ingenieure Lichtplanung Berlin

Arena
Alsop & Störmer Architects Hamburg, London, Moscow.
Client: Allianz Immobilien GmbH for DKV AG, Berlin

Planets
Alsop & Störmer Architects Hamburg, London, Moscow.
Client: Allianz Immobilien GmbH for DKV AG, Berlin

Basics
Alsop & Störmer Architects Hamburg, London, Moscow.
Client: Allianz Immobilien GmbH for DKV AG, Berlin

Passion
Château de Keriolet. Prototypes for Chapel and Tower, Concarneau (France)

Photography Clients

Corporate Clients:

BECKS
BMW
BOSCH
DKV
GE PLASTICS
RENOLIT
SIEMENS
SONY
VOLKSWAGEN

Wine Industry:

Château Dauzac, Margaux Grand Cru Classé
Château Le Puy, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux
Château Soutard, Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classé
Clos Puy Arnaud, Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux
Domaine Zind-Humbrecht, Alsace Grand Cru

Other:

Blueprint, London
Claudia Skoda Fashion Design, Berlin
Domaine des Étangs, Massignac
Fondation Beyeler, Basel
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Freitag, Berlin
Inventario, Milano
KUNSTFORUM international
Le Monde, Paris
The New York Times, NYC
RIAS Kammerchor, Berlin
The Media Centre, London
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Berlin

Agencies:

iTEM, Paris
nk Nienhaus Knüwer and Friends, Düsseldorf
Plexgroup, Berlin

VG Bild, Bonn
The New York Times, NYC

Study of exposed silver crystals, 2016 (400 ISO / CNRS)

Capturing the Invisible
The study explores the dormant thermic potential of silver halides in classic gelatin films pushing photography at the edge of quantum physics. This includes monochrome imaging with residual light and the development of new filter options for night-photography beyond the visible spectrum. Sequential testing in collaboration with the CNRS France / Scientific Imaging Center (University of Bordeaux, France).

Towards a 3rd Eye
Reassembling a Master-Tool. Research for a new typology of camera systems fusing the traditional elements of the camera obscura with the high performing features of a new generation of scientific image tools.

Royal College of Art, London. Imperial College, London. Cornell University AAP (College of Architecture, Art and Planning), Ithaca NY and Rome Program, Italy.

With BREXIT in 2020 and numerous lockdowns that followed until 2022 during the Coronavirus pandemic, most of Fecht’s academic teaching activities became impossible to maintain or simply vanished. The gap opened new opportunities and finally gave birth to ARTISTs PRESS in 2022. Based in Berlin, it maintains editorial branches in Geneva and Basel, Switzerland. The small publishing company has been co-founded by Tom Fecht and the Swiss musician and graphic designer Hubert Neidhart during the pandemic. Their continuous collaboration started already back in 2008, when Neidhart and Fecht shared the former studio of Dieter Roth in Basel. ARTISTs PRESS has been founded to share their passion about art. For more information please visit http://www.artistspress.eu/

Lectures and master classes

AAA Architectural Association School of Architecture, London. Academy of Applied Sciences, Berlin-Potsdam. ENSA École nationale supérieure d’architecture Paris-Malaquais, Paris . ETH, Zürich. University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, Buffalo NY. Yale School of Architecture, New Haven, CT.

Academic projects

2008 – 2017
Joint master courses at the Royal College of Art and the Imperial College, London. Photography as a master-tool and design-strategies for the future agenda. IDE – Innovation Design Engineering.

2005 – 2007
Go Global. A collaborative project between the Academy of Arts and Design at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China and the Department of Industrial Design Engineering at the Royal College of Art London. Tutor and photographer on a series of training modules involving students from both faculties to develop their design skills in a global environment. While the 2005 module focused on design products for the Chinese market, the 2007 module targeted the negative effects of extreme consumer culture. To develop critical response and long-term design strategies in a global market scheme, the research in China explored a broad spectrum of meta-themes like Time, Wellbeing, Intimacy, Truth, Scale, Spirituality and Narcissism/Hedonism. After selective prototyping the modules close with public presentations followed by marketing activities.

2004 – 2005
Broken Vision – The Projection of Surface and the Displaced Image. Experiment with architecture and art students at Cornell University co-taught with John Zissovici, Associate Professor of Architecture. Included a fieldtrip to Donald Judd’s installations in Marfa, Texas and the collaborative design and construction of projection devices for a touring exhibition (Hartell Gallery/Cornell University, NY and Royal College of Art, London); accompanied by as a ‘Passport’ with an introduction by Mohshen Mostafafi.

2002 – 2005
Metropolitan Transformation -Interdisciplinary study series in connection with annual excursions for students of Industrial Design, Architecture, Photography and Media Design at the Academy of Applied Sciences Potsdam. Paris (2003) in cooperation with Boston University Paris Internship Program and the Centre Georges Pompidou/Centre de Création Industrielle; London (2004) in cooperation with the Royal College of Art, The London Consortium and The West London Architectural Society; New York (2005) in cooperation with Cornell University, SOM, Diller Scofidio Architects, DIA Foundation, photographer Gregory Colbert (Ashes & Snow) and interior designer Dakota Jackson and Lee Mindel.

1997 – 2000
Movement Into the Open – Four Experiments About Space. Interdisciplinary project in collaboration with Dietmar Kamper at the Institute for Historical Anthropology, Free University Berlin. Organized into four areas of focus, the project’s experiments were executed in conjunction with European academic and professional institutions: Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg and Architectural Association Hamburg (1997), Academy of Media Arts Cologne (1998), Bauhaus Academy, Dessau and Academy of Fine Arts Vienna (1999). Participants included John Berger, Herman Czech, Daniel Defert, Jan Fabre, Ute Guzzoni, Knowbotic Research, Anthony Moore, Juan Munoz, Nasrine Seraji, Peter Sloterdijk, Lars Spuybroek, Andreas Ruby and Siegfried Zielinski. Outcome published in 2000, see Publications.

1997 – 1998
The Skin Laboratory – Borderlines Between Art and Architecture (Hautlabor). Project as visiting professor at the Academy of Fine Arts, Hamburg in conjunction with the Academy of Media Arts, Cologne. Participants included Hubertus von Amelunxen, Peter Anders, Claudia Benthien, Werner Hofmann, Dietmar Kamper, Knowbotic Research, Gerd Lovink, Harald Singer, Andrei Ujica, Siegfried Zielinski.

1997
The City as Key Aesthetic Experience at the Turn of the 21st Century and the Documenta X . Visiting professor and artistic director of advanced studies for architectural students of Muthesius University of Architecture Kiel, Academy of Fine Arts Hamburg and Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Project included a public discussion between T. Fecht and Rem Koolhaas.

Website

1971 – 1974
Columbia University (New York City). Studies in physics, thermodynamics, cybernetics and electronic engineering. Recipient of IBM scholarship.

1974 – 1978
Free University and Technical University of Berlin (West Berlin, Germany). Diploma in Engineering and Computer Science (1976). Research on computer based imaging at IBM (Westchester Co., NY and Chicago, IL) and Columbia University NYC.

1973 – 1989
Founder and director of ELEFANTEN PRESS in West Berlin 1973, an experimental Gallery and forum for artists, photographers and art historians followed by his Elefanten Press publishing company in 1977. Publisher, author, editor, curator, art dealer and exhibition designer until 1989. The publications spanned from art, architecture, biography, children’s books, cultural history, industrial design, literature, photography, satire and travel guides to weekly journals and monthly periodicals. The publishing house became in particular known for its popular series of heavily illustrated history books and low priced reprints of original documents for a young audience, shining light on the Holocaust and Nazi period, World War II and Germany’s postwar trauma that made the publications part of a broader peace movement that succeeded the Cold War.

2022
With BREXIT in 2020 and numerous lockdowns that followed until 2022 during the Coronavirus pandemic, most of Fecht’s academic teaching activities became impossible to maintain or simply vanished. The gap opened new opportunities and finally gave birth to ARTISTs PRESS in 2022. Based in Berlin, it maintains editorial branches in Geneva and Basel, Switzerland. The small publishing company has been co-founded by Tom Fecht and the Swiss musician and graphic designer Hubert Neidhart during the pandemic. Their continuous collaboration started already back in 2008, when Neidhart and Fecht shared the former studio of Dieter Roth in Basel. ARTISTs PRESS has been founded to share their passion about art. For more information please visit http://www.artistspress.eu/