Interview with Leo Gesess
“The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.
Marc Twain
“I’M NOT BORN TO PLEASE.”
Leo, your illustrious career spans photography, advertising, and book publication. Could you delve into how these disciplines intersect methodologically, particularly in the creation of visual narratives that cater to various media formats and audience expectations?
No, I'm not talking about my birthday, but about the day when I realized why I was born. The day when my consciousness reached the stage where I could consciously perceive feelings, when I understood that each of my works is born. Each one on its own with its own existence. Born, independent of space and time, to then live an existence detached from goal, time, purpose or content. Connected without being methodical. Without any connexion. In no way predictable and always surprisingly different than expected. Stylishness as a stylistic device.
Driven by the idea that “the medium is the message”, I don't allow any thoughts that prioritize execution in any way. Always content before form. Holistic way of thinking and way of thinking. I am the connection, not the medium.
EXAMPLE: My horse book is called “a very ordinary horse book”. The book is dedicated to the dog *Frisco*, who watched me with interest for weeks during my photo work in Nova Scotia, Canada. A book without a single word about horse life. Parallel but differently realized identical pictures as a stylistic device and the verbal juxtaposition of the language of horses and answers from humans.
1000 printed - 3 left. My work? Strategy, Concept, Design, Photography, Copy, Digital print preparation, Print monitoring at the printing press in Hungary, Marketing, Promotion, Webdesign and Sales.
Your work exhibits an admiration for both Maurizio Cattelan’s irreverent artistry and Joseph Beuys' transformative ideals. How do you merge the playful subversion of Cattelan with Beuys’ deep sociocultural engagement in your artistic expression?
If you don't feel it - you will never understand it.
Those who look for answers without asking the right questions are lost.
Fluxus is not a hair wash, not an erotic gel, not a latrine drain. But Beuys. Fat, felt & stick.
The Tartar legend or grunting 8 hours wrapped in felt with a shepherd's crook. Creating his own purist world and degrading us to spectators. With stick, felt, fat - his forces of nature.
Mentally immersing yourself in it is wonderful, because there are no questions and no answers. Only creative imagination.
If only I ever had the chance to capture the power of such a performance in a picture. To tell such a story that consists only of thoughts.
I detach myself from all existing content that has ever tried to find a solution for what needs no solution. It goes much further mentally. I find that extremely fascinating. That is communication! Even with a dead rabbit.
Cattelan? Logic? Line? Behavior? Incredible and unpredictable! Wonderful! First solo exhibition: BE RIGHT BACK! These are the fantasies that turn spaces into nothing. These are actions out of constraints. Acts of mockery and revenge.
These geniuses influence my work more than anything else. And prove me right (see title).
Like a wet soap. Never knowing what will happen next. White, blank page in front of your nose - and everyone is waiting. Intellectual food for the brain. Neither want to please (neither do I).
Cattelan Exhibition poster 2013 © Gallery Foundation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland. Signed poster copy no. 63, in my possession.
That's where I see myself. Leaving the scourge of the family at 18. Shaped as a lateral thinker with a keen eye and intellect. I nonviolently cold-cocked anyone who got in my way.
I have always put my popularity to the test with my intuitive differences. Often with success.
Whether Beuys wraps a piano in felt with a red cross, or Cattelan puts an evil ant in limbo ... . Let them sit in a cage with coyotes or stick bananas on the wall. We invent the stories and reduce them to simple worlds of understanding. Communicated like buzzwords and completely incompetent in content. But attractive to pass on.
With your thematic focus on 'holding the moment,' how do you capture both the temporal fluidity and spatial dynamics within a single frame, especially in fast-paced settings like rally racing?
My key to Momentum is my natural scientific way of working: observing, analyzing, experimenting.
EVERYTHING is created just like that! Whether strategies, communication or visual worlds. I'm not talking about advertising or a photo. This is the executive moment to visualize the thoughts and make the content accessible to all/many.
Intuition, pure intuition. Rally? The courage to take risks. My life for the moment.
Be happy to be in this place for a fraction of your life and imprint the moment in your brain and on the sensor. After that, only emptiness. I baptized the picture *Angel*, risked my life and won a few awards with it.
As an artist with a rich background in various cultures, how do you balance cultural sensitivity with a universally compelling aesthetic in your work?
My home country is Switzerland. As we all know, the money is on the ground and the mountains of chocolate are made of gold. Poverty is not congruent with national pride. Consequently, all Swiss people are rich. People are lulled into a sense of security, both commercially and artistically.
Italy gave birth to my parents. The USA is my dream country, where I also lived.
Switzerland: face to face at the Federal Parliament table in Bern with the then Federal Councillor Adolf Ogi for the national energy conservation campaign - he was sharp-witted, competent and legendarily precise.
A large-scale energy-saving campaign for Switzerland. Strategy: reduced to the max! *bravo!* Say thank you to the people who are willing to save. You can't turn the others around even with a lot of money. No Saul to Paul.
Switzerland: With preference on Sundays or Swiss holidays at the conference table with Forrest Mars, Jr., the chocolate bar god - incredibly prepared, short-tempered-arrogant, spectacularly analytical with one goal - value for money.
Italy: On site with the general, undifferentiated mentality of aimless, non-visionary scroungers. Gesticulating and always ready for a worthwhile compromise.
Germany: With the first guard of political and economic celebrities under the Mercedes-Benz star. Highest high-floor days, standing straight as recipients of orders for major commercial projects. Or for social state aid projects for people in need.
EXAMPLE: The German veterinary aid organization *underdog* in Düsseldorf wants to help dogs. If you are excluded from society, you end up on the second lowest rung of poverty. If you have a dog with you as your companion through this bleak life, then you end up at the very bottom. Homeless with a dog? Who wants that? I lived with these people for a week. Feeling instead of working. Respect instead of digital. We created a work together. Their world became my world. The pictures went viral with the laconic note: “The Swiss photographer Leo Gesess”.
Nobody shares my life. My dog does!
Abandoned by all. Not by the dog!
One of the most beautiful works in my life. The organization wanted to show sadness and hardship and I show real life. These people told me *never ever back to the establishment* and were happy. Me too.
These completely complementary cultures have influenced my work in an indescribable way. The great cultural cocktail has had a decisive influence on my work. My inner enthusiasm for this multiple, global approach still knows no comparison today. It is the mainspring that drives my brain and soul. It is the drive to do the unexpected as always. Expect the unexpected.
Narrative plays a pivotal role in your photography. Could you share insights into a project where you utilized complex narrative structures—such as non-linear, cyclical, or fragmented narratives—to deepen the narrative layer of your images?
An important preface to the above question:
“Three horses lost their lives at Cheltenham Racecourse in distressing and visible incidents (Sun 17 Nov 2024). Two horses, *Abuffalosoldier* and *Bangers* and *Cash* collapsed and died of suspected heart attacks in the same race - a demanding three-and-a-half mile contest over 22 fences. In the next race, Napper Tandy broke his neck in a fall, after failing to jump a newly designed 'safer to view' hurdle (a type that has been responsible for a number of deaths recently).”
I would like to speak here of a bidirectional narrative structure, which has cost my heart and mind enormous effort for the realization of the Grizzetti Galoppo project.
The preamble shows the tragedy of abandoning a highly sensitive creature like a horse (and a thoroughbred horse in particular) to human greed and heedlessness. The horse is beaten excessively in order to gain performance and money. Ruthless and violent.
In this scenario of narrative storytelling, I set the motivational campaign for horse racing for one of the most famous racing stables in Italy. Paradoxical?
“You’re still small but already pretty smart. Plague of flies in the morning in Dormelletto on the pasture? You’ve found the ideal position. Mommy wags the flies away. Quite clever. You will surely become a champion one day”. (Photographer Leo Gesess)
The pictures I took of these wonderful creatures were away from any racecourse and completely detached from their purpose as racehorses. Into the pack of horses, sometimes with their Filly, and previously asked for acceptance as an intruder into their territory. Perceive, analyze and feel. Establishing communication with the horse. Perceiving the finest sounds. Understanding movements. Giving security and waiting. Then there is the moment when they allow your presence. For a short time. Then you can look into their soul. Into their eyes and their sensitivity. Then they become images. Tried again and again. Sometimes they didn't want you around. Accepted.
“If I could give you your freedom, I would do so without hesitation. You are a successful thoroughbred in the race – and now a horse mommy. You will make sure that you will never be forgotten in the future. By the way, your foal is beautiful”. (Leo Gesess, photographer)
Strategy? To present horse racing from its “humane” side. No beating, no betting and no pressure to succeed. Just horses! Awareness lesson for people who want to see it that way. All the organizations that have been campaigning against brutality in horse racing for decades. And not from the perspective of the organizations, but voluntarily from the perspective of the people.
The campaign consists of images, of the photographer's emotional world, of Federico Tesio's statements (help yourself to find out who is it) and the claim JOY TO WIN!
“You wanted to show me what you could do. One could hear your hooves vibrating the ground. Then your silhouette in the bright morning light. A moment for the gods who created you. Great moment. Thank you!” (Leo Gesess, photographer)
A paradox, one thinks. The reversal of reality? It is not the unrestricted will to win, but the will to treat the horse with respect. It should be a pleasure for everyone to win (that's the strategy). Especially for the horse - and for myself with the Platinum Design Skill Award 2024.
How does your work engage with or challenge contemporary art theories, particularly concerning themes of decay, permanence, and the ephemeral nature of existence?
I see, therefore I am.
The changes in the environment are not about people and generations, but only about the material substance that is slowly but surely being lost. Where there was something before, only remnants remain. Rusty surfaces where life was communicated. Where consumption was communicatively activated, only illegible fragments remain.
What remains are the material crumbs hanging lovelessly on a billboard. Nobody is interested, because they no longer have any communicative value. They are crumbs of society, I thought to myself. A call to consume torn to shreds. The ugly side of our torn society. Limited in time. Because the very next poster destroys what has been destroyed.
This level fascinated me and inspired my thoughts. Remnants that nobody likes, that's my territory! These are the moments you have to capture.
Dead matter enriched with the beauty of life. The next level. Carelessness and waste paired with the attractiveness of female beauty. Trash becomes an artifact and beauty becomes the holy grail.
And the whole thing becomes my work “crumbs & beauty”.
It was at the exhibition, in an art gallery in Italy that deals with international artists, to test the effect of whether unexpected art is also attractive. I am familiar with torn works by Mimmo Rotella, but I have no example. I don't stick fragments onto my pictures like others, I photograph them. Standing on the median strip of a busy road!#
My beauty pictures are originals, not stock images. And I don't need AI.
Contemporary photographic art. All the pictures in the gallery were sold in 2 days.
How do you navigate the balance between artistic freedom and ethical responsibility, especially in commercial contexts? Could you provide an example where ethical considerations led you to alter your artistic approach?
What matters in life is whether you can choose. If your success allows you to do so, you have achieved a personal freedom that also allows you to do things that you don't consider ethical but are interested in as a challenge because others have failed so far.
My life between being a photographer and a creative director is an ambivalent one. Sometimes I like one more than the other. That's why I decided to do both at the same time. Because the substance lies mainly in the seduction of the viewer into a world that can also please with little affinity.
Cigars!
Non of my advertising clients have ever forced me to drive “their car”, eat “their bars” or open an account at “their bank”. I can therefore advertise a product that I will never consume for the rest of my life in a completely value-free way. No prejudice and my free spirit starts to work.
So where is the lowest common denominator of this product strategically and conceptually?
Eureka! The smoke! Determines the characteristics of the user.
There's the quickie - small ... and fast action. Next to it the cigar - big... and true love.
I could already “see” the result during the photo shoot in my studio. The magic moment of communication!
First the picture with the statement and then the wording with the content. Against my will, because I work according to the principle of content before form. But you have to have a holistic vision. That forgives a lot.
The campaign was honored with the Platinum Award 2024 for best advertising campaign worldwide. All awards at www.comcom.ooo
The reader should leave his volatile information absorption and “take along” a formative piece of information in the legend text. That's what legends are for. Because they are short and decisive for the information. No blah blah blah.
Considering your hesitance to fully embrace AI and certain modern technologies, how do you ensure your projects remain innovative and current?
The issue is not AI, but the generational change that has occurred. A 7-inch (mobile) generation with volatile information intake. If we look at AI as a new digital technological direction from this perspective, we learn that technical assistance in the field of so-called artificial intelligence has been around for decades. In the early days of the Mac, the programs were structured in such a way that the creative user (the source of business for Apple at the time) could make use of many tools provided by the “intelligent” system software. Over the years, these auxiliary programs became more and more ingenious and efficient. (Example: Nik Sharpener and Nik Color Efex were developed by Nik Multimedia Inc. in the 1990s as digital photo filters that could be used in Photoshop or as standalone applications).
I played around with them, changed them and created image worlds that just cracked. All at the touch of a button. Give Luminar a try today! Have fun.
This is the side of creative image editing software that interests me as a photographer. My job is to preserve the photographic basis that I have created. I decide where I want to intervene. According to my way of thinking, in order to create valuable integrative quality that fascinates me first.
I am proud that this non-AI-generated picture won a prize in the competition in Germany: Enter into Art - Lounge 2 - International Artworks and Poems on the anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi.
I don't want to watch uselessly as I am presented with an image, a scene or a video that has been completely stolen from the mental universe by entering a few fragments of words. That is no brain - no future.
If I read that, I'm already dead today:
“Artificial neural networks of varying depth are created. They correspond to certain processes in the human brain. On this basis, AI is able to learn from large amounts of data, recognize patterns, identify correlations and solve certain problems.”
We are on the threshold of uselessness. Is this what John McCarthy wanted in 1955?
AI in the field of science and technology has other parameters, but I can't say anything about that. I just hope that it will help many people to take responsibility and recognize the limits of the system.
AI does not fit in with the way I work. I go into the woods with my dogs - and serve up the unexpected to people who have asked me to do something for them. And this extends to all areas of my work. I am grateful when I don't have to thank anyone. Not even to John McCarthy.
How do you integrate your philosophical beliefs with your artistic practices to create works that are not only visually engaging but also intellectually and emotionally resonant?
“...look for a long time at what pleases you, and longer still at what pains you...” (1873 - Colette - writer, actor and journalist).
In my view, a moment is always reactive. Turn around and you don't see a shadow! That is a moment! The subject was simply there and then immediately gone again. You can feel this moment - that's the secret.
My picture is and remain a mistery. A moment of unforgettableness. A place of joy or shame.
“Gungirl” my winning picture at the International Global Photography Awards 2018 Dubai. Out of thousands of photographs worldwide, this image has struck a chord.
It should be a statement. What children are shown as the world today is a disgrace. Being an adult is a disgrace. If the child survives this world, she will not understand it!
So many essays have been written and opinions expressed. The imagery is pure storytelling. It makes people concerned and thoughtful and willing to express themselves in many ways because it has incredible depth. The viewer leaves the holistic view of the picture and goes deep into the details. You find material for the imaginary world that you can create for yourself at any time. And everyone believes they have recognized the purpose of the picture. I will probably take the truth to my grave.
