Hein Gravenhorst (German, b. 1937) is a photographer and, together with Gottfried Jäger, one of the founders of Generative Photography.In 1968 Gravenhorst showed his photomechanical transformations in the exhibition “Generative Photography” at the Städtisches Kunsthaus in Bielefeld, alongside Kilian Breier, Pierre Cordier and Jäger.,,The show gave the new movement its name.
Gravenhorst's transformations were made with optics, chemistry and a sophisticated mechanism, rather than a computer, producing circular arrangements of multiply exposed elements in the series Photomechanical Transformations and Rotational Transformations.,Of this approach Gravenhorst wrote, “You do not take a photo, you make it!”Since 1970 Gravenhorst has lectured in photography at the Kiel University of Applied Sciences.
Gravenhorst's work is held in museum collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Peter C. Ruppert Collection, and a 1966 photographic work is held by Tate in London.,In 2016 the gallery Photo Edition Berlin gave Gravenhorst his first solo exhibition there, “Light reflex: Transformation - Translation - Rotation”, showing vintage prints from 1964 to 1968.In 2020 the auction house Lempertz in Berlin presented a solo exhibition of transformations that had remained largely unexplored for half a century.
In 2022 Phillips included Gravenhorst's work among the generative photographers featured in “Ex Machina: A History of Generative Art”, an exhibition and online auction curated by Georg Bak.,Later that year his transformations were shown alongside Frieder Nake's work in “Liebe Maschine, male mir”, a Zurich group exhibition curated by Bak and Kate Vass.In 2024 curators Elenora Brizi and Bak invited Gravenhorst, described as one of the pioneers of Generative Photography, into “From Code to Imagery” at Paris Photo, alongside Ganbrood, David Young and Kevin Abosch.,
