"In my lens-based paper drop images I made the photographic paper itself my subject matter, creating images that are figurative and abstract at the same time. I liken them to mathematical functions. I can't calculate them, but a mathematician could describe exactly how their shapes happened through the tension of the paper and gravity. They are almost like scientific illustrations."
—Wolfgang Tillmans
The present work portrays a gracefully curled sheet captured in its beautiful and compelling interaction with abstraction of light and shadows. Tillmans uses a shallow depth of field, so that the interior shadows form an abstract haze, emphasised by the sharp edges of the paper. The unfocused background consists of similar neutral tones enhancing the ambiguity of the subject.