Frank Widmann
Photographer – staging, researching, artistically radical
Frank Widmann, born in Mannheim in 1959, studied communication design at the Wiesbaden University of Applied Sciences. He discovered his passion for photography at a young age. He gained his first experience at the National Theater Mannheim and in independent artistic projects – including portrait and nude photography and experimental printing techniques.
In 1986, he founded his own studio in Wiesbaden. Since then, he has worked both as a freelance artist and as a successful commercial photographer. He has realized groundbreaking projects for renowned companies such as Opel, Chrysler, Fiat, Nike, Aral, Rowenta, and Dyckerhoff & Widmann AG. His calendar work for Teves has received numerous awards, including from the Art Directors Club (ADC) and the Golden Award at the All Japan Calendar Fair in Tokyo. A milestone was the photographic documentation of an Opel test drive across the entire American continent.
A stay in New York and numerous awards shaped his artistic development. In 2004, Widmann switched to digital photography.
His work moves at the boundaries of social viewing habits. Angelika Wende wrote of him in 2006:
"Widmann works with surprise, alienation, and confusion. He pushes the boundaries of our sense of taboo. […] His models remain in the moment. The dynamic arises from the fact that we begin to write the script in the moment of seeing."
Despite his artistic ambitions, Frank Widmann rejects the label "artist." Yet his works—particularly in the area of nude photography—provide visual stimulus and invite reflection.
With the exhibition “Nude Photography and Body Images” at the Mainzer Kunst! gallery, his artistic work was presented to a larger art-loving audience for the first time.
Further insights into the work of Frank Widmann can be found on his website at
👉 www.frank-widmann.de
and on Instagram at
👉 instagram.com/frankwidmann
The artist portrait was released for publication with the kind permission of Frank Widmann.