Nikolaus von Wolff: "Tom Wolfe / Berlin Taxi"

Promptography on Hahnemühle Fine Art Paper

READERS series from 2023

Size: 40 x 23 cm

Edition: 3 + 1 AP

Signed, titled and edition numbered by the artist in pencil on the verso.

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Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test is considered a chronicle of a counterculture that rebelled against convention and order. Von Wolff sets this literary revolt in the confines of a Berlin taxi, with night fog and streetlights as a backdrop. The reader is immersed in his book, while outside, the urban bustle shimmers in the twilight – the interior and exterior world seem barely connected. It is a picture of isolation in the heart of the city, a silent counterpoint to the excess Wolfe's text describes. Yet the composition exhibits that unsettling perfection that surpasses classical photography: the light, the razor-sharp contours, the precise balance of the image surfaces. Here, AI reveals itself as an invisible co-author, transforming documentary appearance into a game of deception. The question of veracity shifts – the rebellious element no longer lies solely in Wolfe's words, but also in the artificiality of the image itself.

The Readers series thus represents a dialectical exercise: it evokes the authenticity of a bygone era while simultaneously deconstructing it. Von Wolff draws on the black-and-white aesthetic of the 1970s and 1980s, but the AI sharpens, organizes, and perfects—until the supposedly documentary tipped into the realm of the constructed. Reading as a theme reveals a dual movement: books are places of retreat and transformation, while images, in turn, generate transformations—of memory, authenticity, and perception. Readers thus calls for a reassessment of what we accept as "photographic truth." Amidst this digitally generated nostalgia, the series points to our own role as sighted beings: we believe what seems plausible, even when we know it is fiction. This is precisely where the philosophical dimension of Wolff's work lies—in the recognition that perception is never neutral, but always culturally and technologically shaped.