Abstraction serves Gursky as a tool for condensing the world into images that are often the result of enormous technical effort. What is crucial for him is the correct distance from the object. He creates abstract visual effects by recognizing patterns and sequences in landscapes or by framing specific details of objects and thus defamiliarizing them. Using digital image processing, he combines diverse visual elements with virtuosic large-format compositions. Pronounced depth of field, colour, and visual balance.These are the crucial elements of Gursky's artistic language. By experimenting with relations of scale and distance as well as the degree of dissociation to which his motifs are subjected, Gursky conveys effects that border on the sublime, and achieves the immediacy of impact which the Abstract Expressionists sought to evoke through form and colour.