Hans Hansen is widely considered to be one of the most important creators of product and still-life photography. His pictorial language evolved through a quest for simplification and by toying with form and alienation, usually based on his experiments with light. By using reduction and liberating objects from their contexts of origin, Hansen has succeeded in imbuing the photographic image with a sense of autonomy that references questions of representation extending far beyond the field of so-called product photography. It is for this reason in particular that the work of Hansen remains a recurring point of reference for a younger generation of artists who primarily move within the realm of photography.