Hubertus Hamm Germany, b. 1950

Hubertus Hamm was born in 1950 in Verdohl, in the Sauerland region of Germany. From 1970 to 1973 he studied at the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Fotografie in Munich, graduating with a diploma. He subsequently worked as an assistant to photographer Jan Keetman until 1975, when he established his own studio in Munich. From that point onwards, Hamm built a parallel career in applied, editorial and conceptual photography, developing a practice that would gradually move away from conventional image-making towards a more expansive engagement with materiality, space and perception.

The defining concept of his artistic practice is what he terms “Dimensioning Photography”, a framework he developed to describe his systematic expansion of photography beyond the flat picture plane. Rather than capturing the world through a lens alone, Hamm physically intervenes in his materials: he moulds acrylic and glass, presses and deforms photographic surfaces, and constructs mirror-based installations that implicate the viewer directly in the work.

The series Molded Mirrors (begun around 2010) exemplifies this approach, with warped reflective surfaces that distort and fragment the viewer’s image, turning self-perception into an unstable, questioning experience. Narziss und Goldgrund (2018) extends this inquiry into portraiture and vanity, using polished gold surfaces to probe themes of ego, power and the gaze. The ongoing series vi-ew (from 2022 onwards) represents his most recent body of work, exploring layered visual experience through the interplay of transparency, reflection and physical form. His monograph Dimensioning Photography was published by Distanz Verlag, Berlin, in 2017.

Hamm’s work is held in several significant public collections. The Neue Sammlung der Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich, the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum in Dresden and the Neues Museum in Nuremberg all count his works among their holdings. He is a longstanding member of the Deutsche Fotografische Akademie (DFA), the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Fotografie (DGPh), the Art Directors Club Deutschland (ADC), the Bund Freischaffender Fotodesigner (BFF) and The Association of Photographers (AOP).

His exhibition history spans institutions across Europe and Asia. Solo and installation projects have been presented at the Villa Stuck in Munich, the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Museum Rietberg in Zurich, the Yuan Art Museum in Beijing (2014) and the SPSI Art Museum in Shanghai (2013). Temporary installations have been realised at the Nationaltheater Munich, including Molded Mirrors "All the World’s a Stage" (2011) and Molded Mirrors "Synchronized" (2014), both installed in the Königssaal of the Staatsballett. In 2023, his works were on view in the exhibition Reflections at the Museum für Konkrete Kunst in Ingolstadt.

Hubertus Hamm has maintained a close and ongoing relationship with KORNFELD Galerie Berlin. The gallery presented a solo exhibition of his work in 2015, followed by the duo show Make It Your Own Story with Susanne Roewer in 2021, and the solo exhibition vi-ew in January 2023, which introduced new works from his most recent series. KORNFELD Galerie Berlin has also presented Hamm’s work at Paris Photo New York and Frieze New York.

Hamm continues to develop his practice from his Munich studio, consistently pushing the question of what photography can become when it leaves the wall and enters the world as a physical, reflective and spatial experience.