André Gelpke

*1947

André Gelpke (German, born 1947) studied photography with Otto Steinert at the Folkwang School in Essen between 1969 and 1974. Already in 1974, Gelpke was featured in an early solo exhibition at Galerie Lichtropfen in Aachen, later to become Galerie Kicken. In the year after obtaining his diploma, Gelpke co-founded the Visum photo agency. Next to Heinrich Riebesehl and Michael Schmidt, Gelpke can be considered one of the pioneers of art photography in West-Germany at the time. Gelpke’s photographs have been featured in numerous solo exhibitions at large museums, such as the Museum Folkwang, Essen, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and at the Sprengel Museum, Hanover, among others. Between 1990 and 2012 he was professor for photography at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste (Zurich University of the Arts). He continues to live and work in Zurich.