Michael Werner’s photo works can be divided into two groups or series, yet in the end the circle is complete again and forms an integrated whole. The first series which is called the „Classics“, is created without additional enhancement. The second group of shots called the "Remixes” is treated with visual treatment and/or manipulation.

The classical shots are combined into the group that shows motives of ubiquitous surroundings such as architecture, flowers, objects of interest, and everyday things. Actually these are motives or subjects of amateur photography. Michael Werner changes and alienates these "ordinary” photos with a blurry look, caused by over or under exposing and color effects, creating new structures or trends. The results of this process is rather "unreal”. The shrill color combination leaps out and catches one‘s eye, at second glance one must search for or try to discover the familiar on the surface. In this field of tension, reflections appear regarding the artist‘s and viewer‘s point of view about the familiar and glamorous superficiality that covers the familiar. The photographs reflect the visual aesthetic of advertising or fashion photographs. They are very sensual, young, sexy, glamorous and romantic, causing an almost dreamlike state to the viewer. What the photographs show is not necessarily reality although it is reality.

The photographs appear to have been inspected by a make-up artist or a plastic surgeon before they were presented to the public, or Hollywood has adopted the photo’s and is displaying them in cinemascope.

The motives can be found at home in a sun-flooded world, a world full of colors and clichés. A world that is completely obsessed by the mass media (magazines, TV, movies). We must maintain a certain image by looking young, staying slim, and looking beautiful at all times. We must keep up with all the new fashions and drive the right cars. Our apartments must be styled with artistic flair. We must dine at the finest restaurants and visit exclusive clubs and be surrounded by a certain group of people known as the "in crowd”. These are the people who are known to be fashionably dressed at all times and up to par on all events going on around the world. If we don‘t fulfil this standard we will be seen as outcasts.
On second sight you realize that under the colorful impressionistic emotional style, there is an almost threatening emptiness and loneliness. The photographs will lead you to the heart of the matter and their expropriation through frosted images of the advertising industries, a reflection of the real world and its’ products. There are no encounters, the photos show single figures or things such as; architecture, sculptures, still life and portraits. They are based on the traditional genres of painting fading the lines between painting and photography.

The second group of the photo works is the "remixes”. This series was created in 2001. The origin of this subject lies in modern music, to be more exact in the dance and disco music of the 70’s. "Studio 54” in New York became world famous and the world seemed to be dancing to the rhythm of the stars of that decade. The Bee Gees, Grace Jones, and Donna Summer to name a few that were not only trendsetters but pioneers and role models for an entire generation. In these surroundings different new mixes (remix) of the regular chart breakers have been created, especially for the club scene. This practice is still common today and has been continuously refined over the years.

Meanwhile an entire culture movement has developed, the so-called DJ Culture. Of course, this culture movement is no longer only limited to the clubs. A regular lifestyle industry has been created through fashion, cosmetics, food and drink, magazines etc. which meets all the requirements of this lifestyle and artificially creates new ones. Trip-Hop, Ambient, House, Chill-Out, Trance, and Lounge, just to name a few, are terms that are familiar to all and not only to insiders anymore.
The idea is to create different versions or mixes of a particular song or an already existing image that can be transformed into the field of the fine arts. The different versions that have been created as a remix, produce a totally different mood and create a whole new perspective for the viewer.

There’s a feeling of antagonism in the remixes between the inside and the outside, between clarity and vagueness, between sentiment and prefabricated emotionality.
In this antagonism the circle closes back onto the first series, the "Classics” which apply their creative potential from the same dichotomy.