Franz Meiller
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Biography
Born in Munich in 1961, Franz Meiller took a business degree at the University of Munich. He has also worked since the 1970s in a number of artistic and creative fields, including an exceptionally wide range of theatrical engagements, film and television roles, and also his own cinema and theatre productions – an activity that he still pursues today. In his photographic work, Franz Meiller examines the polarities of reality and abstraction. He is also in constant demand as a theatre photographer.


Gallery Michael Schultz “watching the world walk by in its curious shoes"
(Lawrence Ferlinghetti from “A Coney Island of the Mind”)

The world is passing by Franz Meiller. At least one of them. He looks at it. Observes it. Therefore: himself. What else? The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by. (Louis Armstrong).
 He is, of course, an inescapable part of it, a mirror-image of the totality of the many in one, but somehow, he always succeeds again to fall out of the world, thus to find a STOP, to expose himself to at least more moderate velocities of flow. The artist remains with himself and with-an-other, he becomes a chronicler, a witness, self-evidently entangled in time and space, influenced, tricked, vexed, grounded by a polymetric, polyphonic, flood of pictures. His being-in-the-world is determined by constant movement, changing perspectives. Who, if not Franz Meiller, can proclaim this?!
 Collect only rosebuds as long as you can, old times fly past you. (Robert Herick). However: Time does not flow, it simply exists. Past, present, and future are only illusions, though stubborn. (A. Einstein). The present moment must be denied any absolute, universal meaning. Simultaneity is a relative concept. Two events that occur at the same moment from one reference system can occur at different times from another reference system. Differences of this kind thwart any attempt to give the present moment particular importance, for to whose “now” does this moment relate? For the prospective customer, who is on his way to a Meiller exhibition, the exhibited pictures are still an undecided future; for the visitor, who is looking at the photographs at the moment, for the first or second or other present; for the artist himself they belong already to an established past. In moments of the supposed/actual perception and holding, Franz Meiller is not detached from the world, he is rather split within it. He fortunately exploits this tastefully and shamelessly. Makes pictures, uses excerpts offered to him from all over. Does he influence what he seeks and finds? Does he elect or make a selection? His statement: I am not an actor with a camera looking for the staged image; it is quite the opposite: that is, the world moves past me; it is curious, perhaps not about me; it is constantly moving, incapable of being overseen by me, because I can always only survey one part, and in any case can only determine one direction. Also, the resulting fact that the “recording” of a picture is a process of seeing, of being a witness, of which this curiously moving world may not even be aware. And not at all relevant for it. Authorship is a construct. What is from or of me? Even I myself am not of myself. (Sophie Rois). A picture is full of countless other images, both previously found/sought, thus created, as still to be discovered, part of what is unbrokenly coherent, in which Franz Meiller passionately and humbly participates. And he is only too aware that his images are, at the very moment of their inception, essential parts of innumerable and very moving energies. He watches the world go by. Recording (arresting) it remains a dream. A beautiful, comforting, foaming dream. I can arrest it in the photo when I move past it, the world, but it is only for me, it does not know anything about it and is now already somewhere else. The sections are then there, as fragments, and show the world, but with giant gaps. The gaps I find interesting. The fragments, the non-continuous, the unconnected, indeed partly opposing. The spectacular moments and the inconspicuous. And then they all hang side by side, connected by these gaps, which no one sees. (Franz Meiller) But they do not exist at all. The gaps. Despite all the fragmentations, adaptations, and contradictions, the connections are simply given. Perhaps at this moment not visible, but always perceptible. Franz Meiller works – and, of course, this has to do with his sensitivity and his ability as the remarks made to him – with a broad, symphonic-looking picture world. And he knows the miraculous power of silence, of a pause, of a break. What else can he do? The tutti passages seem to be frozen/fixed to the walls. Only seemingly absurd, not really separate. In fact, wildly moving tones. At the latest, since John Cage’s 4'33'', we know about the In-between, the Next, the Before, the Behind, the Left and the Knots, the Absence of Silence. Consoling, exciting. Fortunately, confusing. And it is only when we feel, see, and listen to the whole that we begin to guess which part – fellow player, listener, both – is assigned to us, what connects the artist with the walker by the sea, the moped driver on the road, the wall climber, the passers-by on the sidewalk. 
 Franz Meiller’s creative expressive means and his self-centered artistic efficiency show impressively how to transcend the boundaries of perception with the tethers of creation, which is only to be done in tenths of a second, so as to break the visual habits in a friendly way and sort them differently. The high school of photo art: discovering or arranging, looking passionately and/or coolly calculating, congenially with the best knowledge and different apparatuses – always conscious of the fact to offer the viewer various ways of co-design and post-shaping. The nine works exhibited here cannot be more different, but are “only” the accentuated, currently the very top positioned components of a series. Meiller once takes us around half the visible world and reveals to us his own, namely, our own, in almost full extent, but not more. And this always has to do with inner and outer movements. Running, riding, jumping, skating, bending, moving. Over the continents, in/at city-country-river-sea, people of different sexes, from 2012 to 2016, at different times. Or? So here and now in this exhibition they are/have been at least synchronized. Their energies, recognized, protected, perhaps preserved by Franz Meiller, are in any case superimposed, even connected: at the same time. One can repeat it with a clear conscience: Meiller can do magic! 
 Let us recall: Large, very large are the formats preferred by Franz Meiller. Pictures with dimensions of 3 x 4 meters are the rule. Nevertheless, his photographs, whether in bright shades or in black and white melancholia, are astonishingly light, permeable and cheerfully welcoming. It could be that the positive energy of his images is very much related to a particular way of working: Franz Meiller creates, composes strictly or spontaneously improvised exclusively when he shoots. Post treatments, photo-shopping changes, interventions are not his thing.
The final word belongs to the artist: these pictures or fragments look at the viewer as a world in curious shoes, which passes them by.

Christian Kneisel
Curator


Franz Meiller [2polar]

Photography has changed our perception of the world and our relationship with reality. More even than moving images or paintings, it is the omnipresent medium of our times, enduring ingredient of our daily lives, confronting us in nearly all situations in life. And with ever more sophisticated technology, we are all venturing to become creative ourselves in capturing our world and – increasingly – ourselves.

Ever since photography was invented in 1839, the question of whether a mass medium can be considered art has been hotly discussed. Even the renowned photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) stated: “Photography is a craft. Many want to turn it into an art, but we are simple craftsmen who must do a good job.” Conversely, Henry Fox Talbot (1800 - 1877), who invented the first process for printing photographs on paper, held photography to be clearly a tool for the creative mind and the artist as early as 160 years ago.

Photography received initial recognition as an art form through the epochal photographic magazine “Camera Work”, which was published by Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) and through the New York exhibition of the same name in 1917. Walker Evans (1903 – 1975) was the first photographer to whom the Museum of Modern Art dedicated a monographic exhibition in 1938. The exhibition catalogue, “American Photographs”, is the first volume in the history of photography dedicated to a single artist. The final breakthrough of photography as an internationally recognised art form came no 
later than 1964, aided by the “World Exhibition of Photography”, which was organised that year by nine German, Dutch and Swiss museums. Titled “What is man?”, the exhibition showcased 555 photos of 264 photographers.

Nevertheless, there are even today those who will contest the recognition of photography as an “art form in its own right”. In truth, arguments such as “the photographer can only portray the world, while the painter transcends reality” or “in photography, we cannot speak of an original due to the simple fact that innumerable prints can be made from any negative or digital image” have long been refuted.

The frequent question as to which aspects of the photographic process defines it as an art form has been amply answered by renowned art photographers and their works. Franz Meiller is one of those. His creative expressiveness and his unflappable artistic efficacy impressively demonstrate how the boundaries of perception can be crossed, shifted, explored in the fraction of a second that it takes to press the shutter to capture (= create) a moment, thus dismantling and reassembling viewing habits in the pleasantest of ways. The noble art of photography: SEEING THROUGH that which is found or arranged; PERCEIVING, passionately and/or pragmatically calculating; CAPTURING congenially and to the best of one’s ability with whatever equipment – always aware of the many devices available to allow the observer to take part in the creative process or the interpretation of its result. The two women in the street (Two Women, Munich, 2016) and the actors on stage (Hands UP, Otto Falckenberg School, 2011) are typical of the many images that invite the viewer to let their imagination reign free and to continue – or even rewrite – the story in their own words. This works unfailingly when studying photographic art but rarely so when viewing illustrations.

Meiller discovers, recognises the extraordinary in the mundane, the unique in the familiar – but always the contradictory and ambivalent in everything. His photos from Greenland (Greenland, 2012) or Greece (Covered, Greece, 2008), for example, render empty and in-between spaces clearly visible and, more than that, tangible; the works created in Düsseldorf (After the Show, 2007) and Leipzig (Arrival, 2012), which capture arrival and departure at a theatre, submerse the viewer into a rollercoaster ride between auspicious departure and nascent solitude. The list of dichotomies that interest and occupy Meiller is long. Fascinated by the black-and-white, the dark-and-bright, the colourful-and-grey and the sharp-and-blurred, he also constructs these opposites: Young–old, abstract–realistic – over and over again, naturally, yet completely different each time.

Impressive is Franz Meiller’s manifold and varied approach to the subjects of his artistic desires. The image of the boy standing by a public telephone (Ears, Cuba, 2014) is a “snapshot” that only someone who has retained the vision and spontaneity of a child can succeed in taking. Franz Meiller finds and/or creates scenes, but scenes are also looking to find him.

The work [2polar] of 2016 – passers-by in front of a Munich hair salon – was created with the delicate precision of a composer. This, by the way, is something that all of Franz Meiller’s works have in common: “There is music in all of them”. When viewing, for example, the girl riding on a moped (Girl on moped, Ho-Chi-Minh City, 2016) or the boy running from a breaking wave (Flight, San Sebastian, 2015), one imagines, much more than just the inherent sounds (of an engine or the sea), a multifaceted soundscape. Meiller’s visual compositions create numerous links and associations in the observer’s mind – from harmonic sound sequences to dissonant clusters. Amongst all these auditive impressions, the confrontation with deafening silence (Procession, Lower Bavaria 2010) comes as a welcome (seemingly) restful change.

A photograph is of little use as a reproduction of reality: any objectivity of a photo is always an illusion. Franz Meiller illustrates this with particular subtlety, regardless of what, how and where he records his images. He seeks out and finds apparently and actually opposing poles that are, nevertheless, always interdependent. Whether next door or out in the wide world, he always looks closely, and always “out of the box”. Whether patiently waiting for the right moment or pressing the shutter at a whim, he never fails to capture the decisive, the unequalled, exciting moment of a situation or even an inanimate object. As already stated: Meiller can tell a story. With the photographs of a girl running from an imposing sculpture (Invasion, Normandy, 2009) and a woman pausing in front of a bunker (Torso, Andalusia, 2013), the artist becomes a political, retrospective chronologist. Meiller quite deliberately juxtaposes these two images. Both within themselves and in relation to each other the works are as contradictory as they are consonant: Though the two people, dressed in red, seem almost insignificant in scale next to the monumental structures, they in fact play a central role in the composition, their mere posture making more tangible the memory of attack and defence, of liberation and aggression.

The trials and tribulations of walking in an inhospitable landscape in bad weather (Homeward, Sicily, 2008) and the water skier’s breathtaking yet focussed thrill (Watersport, Carinthia, 2007) are exemplary for the above-mentioned subject of “What is man?”, which is (of course) also what informs Franz Meiller’s art. With only few exceptions, he creates photographs that essentially examine the condition and contradictions of human existence while also making reference to the greater whole, to nature, to creation. Franz Meiller unfailingly approaches his subjects – be they people, landscapes, horizons, the close by and familiar or the distant and alien – with respect and humility but also with a good measure of courage and an even greater measure of cheer. He shows compassion and empathy to life and treats the moribund judiciously. That is very good and desperately needed.

Large and even larger are Franz Meiller’s preferred formats: dimensions of 3 × 4 metres are standard. Nevertheless, his photographs – whether in radiant colours or in black-and-white melancholy – present themselves light-footed, transparent and bright. It is not inconceivable that his images’ positive energy owe a lot to his particular approach: Whether strictly composing a shot or spontaneously improvising, Franz Meiller creates, crafts exclusively on location. Post-processing and photoshop edits are not his cup of tea.

Franz Meiller is proposing to transform Brennabor art gallery into a place of magic. I’m willing to bet that he will succeed!

Christian Kneisel
Curator



Inner Spaces of Others

On the exhibition by photographer Franz Meiller in the Münchener Stadtsparkasse (Munich Savings Bank)

It is rare indeed for contemplation of images to evoke memories of a text. Here, as one looks at Franz Meiller’s new photographs in the Munich Savings Bank premises, recall is instant. And that is not by chance, for the exhibition designed by Meiller and the words of the art and architecture philosopher Franz-Xaver Baier quoted below prove to share an astonishing affinity: “The space in which a person lives, moves and relates to the world remains essentially invisible. Yes, we see the people as they move to and fro in the towns. But we do not see the spaces that inwardly structure them. We do not see what in others’ perception is open and obvious and what is closed off, what matters to them and what does not. We do not see the corridors of space and the individual tight spots, the places that frighten them and the places where they open out again. In short, we do not see the inner spaces of others with their personal maps and we have no direct access to the world of any other person.” (Franz-Xaver Baier)

These statements bring a strange sense of familiarity. But why does this feeling arise? Perhaps because the space theorist Baier uses language to grasp a circumstance that, more than any other, dominates and shapes the daily unceasing flow of our thoughts. Scarcely any other phenomenon poses as many questions as that of the inscrutability and unbreachable privacy of the inner spaces of others. It is a matter of an instant to recognise the truth of Baier’s observations; but not uncommonly a lifetime is spent trying to demonstrate the opposite. For when people meet each other in spaces, that is what it is all about. It is about the imperative desire to establish relatedness where none exists. To satisfy one’s own curiosity with conjectures about the existences of Others. A single energy-sapping loop, round and round That is one side of it. The other side is that the self-contradictory, endlessly repeated endeavour is incomparably productive. It triggers the desire to transmute the endlessly recurring experience of vain effort into something that does not submerge and lose its identity in the thought-flow of the individual. Into language, into sounds, into images. That the inner spaces of others are beyond our grasp is the very reason for seeking a grasp on them. And this is precisely what happens when, here in the Munich Savings Bank, the artist Franz Meiller encourages access to his personal map. The photographic studies arranged by Meiller in the central gallery, most of them in large-format pairs, convey a sense of gazing long into those very aspects of reality that Franz-Xaver Baier calls corridors of space. In them is the culmination point of the totality of all imaginable ways of living and perceiving: a person in the act of leaping, trying to reach the top of a wall; a hand photographed in disturbing reddish tones, scoring deep dark finger grooves as it slides down; the snapshot at a ceremonial assembly, with the image of the orator in full flow eclipsed by enormous radiant candelabras; the back view of a couple expecting something to happen; two half-open blue telephone kiosks from which a child is trying to make a call; reflections on the surface water of a city fountain. By assembling situations so heterogeneous as to unhook all co-ordinates of place and time, Meiller subverts any attempt to spin stories out of the images and situations he shows. What he creates instead, working through both the arrangement and the format of his photographs, is a space of unmanageable simultaneity. It is not his way to present one-off happenings, torn from their context and thus baffling; the true subject of this exhibition is the chaotic flow of memory and perception, examined in its own right. Within that image-rich stream, the contradictions determine the tempo. And then when they are finally resolved, it is to give way to a new mode of perceiving, one that no longer seeks to mark off the inner spaces of Others from those of the perceiving self, but assumes complete and permanent interpenetration. “We do not somehow crop up in space and time: we are ourselves spatial and temporal. Accordingly we must create being and time and space by our existence. That is the radical meaning of reality.” (Franz-Xaver Baier).

Malte Ubenauf


The World of the Moment

Franz Meiller has a special photographic view of the world. The mood of a particular moment, the unique character of a structure or a perspective, the fleetingness of an encounter – he thinks these things further, entirely in the spirit of street photography. In this way, beyond the visible, he finds stories, narratives. He doesn’t illustrate the stories but translates them into an image language. In this way he makes the quotidian into something special. Often with a wry, gently ironic eye, and at times too, with cool analytical objectivity. He takes many of his photographs from an unusual angle; he may capture the fleeting moment in a reflected image, or heighten it with the use he makes of a shadow-constellation. Occasionally he will seek out the only angle from which the near and obvious is masked. Just to set the scene for the photo’s subtler content to unfold its effect. Someone is delivering a speech at a prizegiving, and for the lens his head is hidden behind a candelabra: it’s Meiller’s piquant comment on the speech. And then – a quite wonderful disjunction, this one – there is the butcher, whose head is similarly replaced in the image by a plucked chicken perched on his neck and whose shoulder acquires a chicken leg. At other times Meiller will select his angle in such a way that only a torso is visible, or limbs. The legs of people on a park bench, of young uniformed women seated on a wall, of a man steering a horse-drawn rickshaw, glimpsed through a car window.

Exquisitely captured materiality. What may look hasty and superficial is in fact the materiality of the significant moment, captured at lightning speed and with exquisite touch. Not one of Meiller’s photographs is staged. Even his stage photography lives by capturing the moment. He never steers an image’s action, and never changes the story except by cropping, moving the camera or choosing his standpoint.

Munich-based Franz Meiller photographs people – and cityscape, architecture, street scenes. Here too he shows his fine instinct for the story behind the story. He has a series entitled Risse (rifts). These rifts or tears become social fracture lines. Or could they be seams?

His photography – in physical terms mostly large-format works which he deploys and orchestrates installation-style for exhibitions – derives its essential character primarily from his unquenchable natural interest and his surroundings.

For these, Meiller has a discerning eye, evident enough in his Munich photographs, but showing at its best when it comes to portraits of unknown people. Even where their circumstances are obviously precarious, he shuns intrusiveness. It makes no difference where the picture is taken – Munich, Hamburg or Berlin, Mombasa, San Francisco or Havana. He allows his subjects always to retain their dignity, and bestows on them through his portraiture a certain quality of rightness exactly where they are. No-one is exposed. His lens pronounces no value judgements, no accusations. Its way of seeing is simply a wide open one that makes us curious, lets us share for a moment in a story that we will never hear but can only approach intuitively. Yet about which Franz Meiller’s photographs will tell us much.

Evelyn Vogel


The chronicler

The photographer Franz Meiller is a chronicler. Not in the lexical sense of the word, but in the consistent dedication to a pictorial narrative, a dedication that underscores the mystery of a very specific limitation. Meiller focuses in his photos almost exclusively on events which occur and reoccur in his immediate (private) environment. His paintings revolve around the appearance and disappearance of a very modest number of people, people who gain his complete attention, both personally and as a chronicler of their life histories. From the moments that Meiller shares with these people, he shapes photographic stories about the mysterious relationship between return and change. Why does one encounter certain people in certain places? Which combinations of people remain constant, and which are fragile? Are there certain rooms or spaces in which rituals of encounter are repeated? Do repetitions of emotional states occur? In other words, what does a chronicle of everyday life in Central Europe look like, and what people and places give this biography its decisive impulses, twists and turns?
By pursuing these questions in his photographs, Meiller objectifies his subjective perception of everyday life. His photographic series provide information on relationships that run counter to personal perception and experience. Meiller stands out by documenting circumstances in his life story and, in the truest sense of the word, creating an "image" of himself. And this "image" is hybrid. It talks of norms (rituals of everyday life) and exceptions (travel and theatre photography), it provides information on the diversity and inconsistency of everyday actions and experience. Meiller estranges himself from his own person by opposing the intuitive truth of his feelings and the truth of the image, and it is precisely here that Franz Meiller’s fascination with an artistic project is born. By staging nothing, he chronicles a staging with consequences from which one might wish to shrink, because one cannot control them.

Malte Ubenauf


Balancing acts
My paradox: “I'm an obsessive person, but my spirit finds it impossible to define itself.” These words of E. M. Cioran, the Romanian author and philosopher, could represent an initial clue to the collection of new photographic works from Franz Meiller at the Gallery Kampl in Munich. A trail that runs exactly along that sharp and barely discernible edge that separates the possible from the unattainable, the dream from the waking state, exuberance from total exhaustion. An edge therefore which is no smooth transition, but an insurmountable rift between two poles of reality. Incompatibility defines the edges of this rift and, consequently, exactly the state in which all available energy needs to be exerted to escape it. Time and again. And repeatedly in vain. Because the action of conflicting forces on thoughts and actions is inevitable, that constantly recurring tarrying at the parting lines and cracks of consciousness inescapable and painful. When Franz Meiller calls his exhibition “Balance-Akte”, or “Balancing Acts”, he generates a cleft in a word which, in his native tongue, is actually written together. He does this because "balancing acts" as a unit do not exist, as no balance is possible on the tip of a knife that permanently separates desire, ability, yearning and experiencing from each other. Accordingly, Meiller illustrates groups of images in his exhibition with extremely contradictory characters. Framed individually or in illuminated boxes, positioned side by side and irritatingly disconnected. They are spontaneous and staged situations, images and documentation of theatre scenes, random events, uncrowded settings and individuals who Meiller depicts facing each other. Tales of paradoxical moods, restlessness, fragile moments of happiness, everyday rituals and curbed passions. Almost all image constellations bear a very specific title: Christmas tree decorations, vacant lot, Prater, pedestrian zone. The simplicity of this titling is disturbing, because it reveals the incompatibility of terminology and perceptions. One title, however, is different: Desirevolution (Revolution of wanting / longing). Although it refers to the novel by Matias Faldbakken and a staging by director Christiane Pohle, when applied to the totality of Meiller’s work, it appears to be the only conceivable bridge which would indicate an accessible connection between the disparate image groupings. This is because the word Desirevolution is an impossibility. And therefore expresses an obsession of photographer Franz Meiller which is perhaps even more severe and deeper than all the cracks and division lines that rigidly polarize human action. An obsession of artistic inventiveness. One that strives to appropriate paradoxes, to twist them and give them new names. This is the only way it might succeed: the Desirerevolution.
Malte Ubenauf


Press - Süddeutsche Zeitung
Art and dump trucks
The entrepreneur Franz Meiller also affords himself the luxury of working as an actor and photographer.
By Franz Kotteder

You might think that the only thing that is missing is that he is writing love poems. It would fit perfectly in a tale by Thomas Mann: the sensitive, artistically gifted son of a long‐established family of merchants and entrepreneurs. That would make a nice cliché. But it’s not a cliché that you can pin easily on Franz Meiller, as he only looks skeptical and says: No, he does not see himself as exotic at all. His artistic streak has always been there, only now he gives it freer rein than ever before. He simply affords himself the luxury of it. “But my two sides are not mutually exclusive. They could even be considered necessary and complementary.” Not so easy to understand at first glance if one is aware that Franz Meiller represents the fifth generation of the Meiller family, a Munich dynasty of entrepreneurs which is the European market leader in the production of tipper trucks and other commercial vehicles.
“They wanted me to decide in favor of one pursuit or the other.”
This business generates a turnover of about 250 million euros and provides employment for 1500.

One likes to believe that someone with a background of 160 years of company tradition should be familiar with tipping semi-trailers, roll-off tippers, skip handlers and other relevant vehicle equipment. But that he could also embody enormous competence in theatrical questions or the arts would, however, probably not be the first impression that comes to mind. In fact, Franz Meiller is occasionally seen on theater stages and in films as an actor ‐ no major roles, but still. Above all, he is in the process of make a name for himself as a photographer. Indeed, this has led to an exhibition at the prestigious Munich gallery of Mathias Kampl (until Saturday, July 31th, Buttermelcherstrasse 15, from noon to 7pm) where his theater photographs can be enjoyed, the perfect merger of his two great artistic passions. Meiller, who is in his late forties, says he has now found the perfect balance between being an entrepreneur and the artistic life. He does not like to talk about how it used to be. Sure, it is not always easy to combine these two pursuits, he says. “I have occasionally been asked to make up my mind and decide in favor of one or the other, the artist or the entrepreneur. And I decided to be both.” Ultimately, his parents did not put any obstacles in his way, even showing understanding when he decided a few years ago to play more of a back seat role in the company’s management. “Back then, I was Sales Manager for two years with tremendous responsibility for staff and sales, but I then realized it wasn’t where I wanted to be in the long run.” Today he is Head of Marketing, three days a week. “But I pull out all the stops when I’m there, I give everything.” And the fact that Meiller-Tippers has won the German Brand Prize for the sixth time in a row also speaks for a certain degree of success in his work. He can now dedicate the rest of his time to that which has fascinated him since his childhood: theater and photography. “I was involved in theater as a child, for example in Christmas plays for my parents, and I also played two years at the Siemens factory theater.” The family was quite interested in culture. They had an opera and a theatre subscription, and social events were sometimes graced by the presence of the opera director August Everding or the director of the Munich Kammerspiele theater, Hans‐Reinhard Müller who were invited to the Meiller’s home. Of course, the eldest son should at some point join the company, so Franz studied business administration (an obvious choice) at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. But the theater still occupied an important place in his heart, and he played in amateur productions at school and during his studies. He eventually applied for work as an extra at the Residenztheater and was hired right away. This led to him playing with "exotic" celebrities such as Gerhard Polt and the Bavarian band Biermösl Blosn in the State Theater.

“That really was something,” he says today," a cost accounting lecture in the morning, and in the evening with Gerhard Polt on stage. But it went well.” Nevertheless, he admits himself that his talents were too limited for a proper career in the theatre, and it would, indeed, have been incompatible with his other obligations. Today he still plays in movies once in a while. In winter he had a smaller role in Kenya as a Bavarian waiter in the Daniel Krauss movie “Slow Play”. The movie is scheduled for release in the fall. Theater has, of course, never quite released its hold on him. He has continued to play smaller roles, but when he met his current girlfriend five years ago things changed nevertheless. Her name is Christiane Pohle and she is one of the most respected theater directors in the German-speaking region. Through her he was soon guesting in productions from Christoph Marthaler or Luk Perceval, and he was also allowed to take pictures during the rehearsals. He had soon gathered an extensive collection of theatre photographs. “I want to take pictures which directly capture the scene, that speak for themselves, but which nevertheless depict the actors and staging in a true light.” He is pleased, he says, if he succeeds in recording "other sustainable aspects of the production and triggering emotions with my work. I’m not interested in standing in the wings and taking a shot of something that the audience cannot see anyway.” He wants to look behind what one can already see, discover another level and make it visible in the photo. His joy is unbridled when he succeeds in doing this. His eyes still sparkle when talking about it, as it is the kind of thing that awakens his curiosity, a curiosity which is indeed great. The business field "creativity", if you want to put it like that, and Meiller definitely wants to expand this sphere further. He has just completed a series of photos for the new book, “Heimat‐Food”, from his friend, the Munich gourmet chef Karl Ederer. And the play “Spieler”, which Christiane Pohle is staging for the Theater Basel and the Munich Pathos Transport Theater and of which he is the producer, will be premiered in the fall. After that, he will be involved in filming for the new Daniel Krauss movie, this time at Wörthersee, an alpine lake in Austria. Quite a lot of work for a part‐time job as an artist.

Legend: Quite a lot of work for a part‐time job as an artist: Franz Meiller is currently making a name for himself as an actor and, more significantly, a photographer ‐ while simultaneously ensuring that the family’s company continues to be the European market leader.


Exhibitions
Galerie Kampl, Munich

2010 Theatre & Photography
2013 Balance-Akte (Balancing Acts) Galerie Friedmann-Hahn, Berlin
2014 Group Exhibition Munich Savings Bank
2015 Franz Meiller Photography Münchener Stadtsparkasse (Munich Savings Bank)
2016 [ 2polar ] Kunsthalle Dresden
2016 [ 2polar ] Kunsthalle Brennabor, Brandenburg
2019 "the wind never thinks too much" Galerie Kampl, München

Other 

2011 & 2014 Restaurant Ederer, Munich
2014 Freudenhaus Optik, Munich
2014 Otto Falckenberg School, Munich
2015 & 2016 Zur Schwalbe, München
2016 Little London, München 

Trade Fairs 

Art Karlsruhe, Munich Contempo, Art Cologne 

Theatre Photography

Salzburg Festival, Theater Basel, Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, Thalia Theater Hamburg. Stadttheater Konstanz, Akademie für Darstellende Kunst (Academy of Performing Arts) Baden-Württemberg. Kammerspiele (theatre) Munich, Otto Falckenberg School Munich

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