WANAFOTO: Germany

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26/08/25

Newton, Riviera & Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton @ Helmut Newton Foundation at the Museum of Photography, Berlin

Newton, Riviera & Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton Foundation at the

Museum of Photography, Berlin

September 5, 2025 – February 15, 2026

Helmut Newton

Grand Hôtel du Cap, Marie Claire, Antibes 1972

Helmut Newton

Helmut Newton, Untitled, Saint-Tropez 1975

In summer 2022, Foundation Director Matthias Harder co-curated the solo exhibition "Newton, Riviera" with Guillaume de Sardes for the historic Villa Sauber in Monte-Carlo. It was the first time this late residence of the Newtons and the region where many iconic Helmut Newton photographs were created was given in-depth attention. A selection of that exhibition is now being presented—parallel to "Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton”—at the Berlin foundation.

At the turn of 1981/82, Helmut Newton and his wife June moved from Paris to Monte Carlo. This relocation not only changed their main residence to the French Mediterranean coast but also dramatically shifted the perspectives and backgrounds of Newton's commissioned work. From then on, it wasn't the casual or elegant Parisian chic but the more glamorous society that he photographed—often juxtaposed against the concrete walls of construction sites in Monaco as a backdrop for fashion shoots.

Newton's fascination with the French Riviera started much earlier. As early as 1964, he and June bought a small stone house near Ramatuelle, close to Saint-Tropez. From then on, they spent their summers there, engaging in intense artistic work. The exhibition unites a large number of early, sometimes unique vintage or lifetime prints. During the 1980s and 1990s, cities like Cannes and Nice were also popular locations for Newton’s striking fashion shoots. He also visited other parts of the Riviera, such as Cap d’Antibes, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, Menton, and even across the border to Bordighera, Italy. He created works across his three main genres—fashion, portrait, and nude—with the intense light in these images often playing a central role.

Helmut Newton

American Vogue, Monaco 2003

Helmut Newton

Jude Law, Monaco 2001

Helmut Newton also occasionally photographed at night from his apartment balcony in Monaco, capturing the quiet, dark sea. Similar melancholic landscape photographs were created in Berlin in the mid-1990s and culminated in one of his last gallery exhibitions titled "Sex and Landscapes" in 2001 at the Galerie de Pury & Luxembourg in Zurich, which also posthumously opened his Berlin foundation in June 2004. By presenting these large-format original prints in the current "Riviera" exhibition, the circle closes again—over 20 years later. Newton’s very last photo shoot, a fashion editorial for Italian Vogue, also took place on the Mediterranean coast of Monaco. One of the images now appears as a giant wall mural in the new exhibition, which—despite more than 100 photographs—can only offer a small glimpse of this important body of work.

Diane Arbus

The King and the Queen of a Senior Citizen Dance,

NYC, 1970

Courtesy Collection FOTOGRAFIS,

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien

Helmut Newton

Hanna Schygulla and costume designer Edith Head,

Los Angeles 1980

In recent years, the Helmut Newton Foundation has featured not only solo and themed group exhibitions but also photographic collections—"Between Art & Fashion" (Carla Sozzani Collection, 2018) and "Chronorama" (Pinault Collection, 2024). Both were exceptionally curated and featured major icons of photographic history.

Weegee (Arthur Fellig)

The Critic – Mrs. Cavanaugh and Friend about to enter

the Metropolitan Opera House, New York 1943

Courtesy Collection FOTOGRAFIS,

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien

Helmut Newton

Blumarine, Monaco 1994

The current collaboration with the "Collection FOTOGRAFIS" from Bank Austria Kunstforum Vienna continues this approach. It consists of over 60 diptychs. Inspired partly by the newsletter of the Collezione Ettore Molinario—which presents two photographs from the Milan collection in dialogue—selected photographs from the prestigious Viennese collection now engage in a thought-provoking visual conversation with works from the Helmut Newton Foundation archive.

Helmar Lerski

Ohne Titel, ca. 1935

Courtesy Collection FOTOGRAFIS,

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien

Helmut Newton

Close-up, Italian Vogue, Bordighera 1982

Curators Bettina M. Busse (Kunstforum) and Matthias Harder (Helmut Newton Foundation) paired the works based on intuition and association. Two photographs are always shown side by side: portraits, still lifes, landscapes, architecture, or surrealistic fashion and nude photographs from entirely different eras. Sometimes the connection is formal, sometimes thematic. Occasionally, the pairing may seem arbitrary or humorous, but each one opens a vast imaginative space for the viewer.

Etienne Carjat

Charles Baudelaire, 1863

Courtesy Collection FOTOGRAFIS,

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien

Helmut Newton

Jack Nicholson, Los Angeles 1985

Frank Meadow Sutcliffe

Excitement, ca. 1888

Courtesy Collection FOTOGRAFIS,

Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien

Helmut Newton

Eva Herzigová, Blumarine, Monaco 1995

"Dialogues. Collection FOTOGRAFIS x Helmut Newton" presents various facets of humanity and the evolution of social life over a century—through pairings of Newton’s photographs with works by Diane Arbus, Alfred Stieglitz, Margaret Bourke-White, Elliott Erwitt, Florence Henri, Duane Michals, Paul Strand, Man Ray, August Sander, Judy Dater, Otto Steinert, and many other renowned names in 19th- and 20th-century photography. These often complementary or contrasting image pairs have never been shown together before.

HELMUT NEWTON FOUNDATION

MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Jebensstrasse 2, 10623 Berlin

www.smb.museum

25/07/25

Lee Friedlander, Joseph Rodríguez, Garry Winogrand @ Museum Ludwig, Cologne - "Street Photography" Exhibition Curated by Barbara Engelbach

Street Photography

Lee Friedlander, Joseph Rodríguez, Garry Winogrand

Museum Ludwig, Cologne

Through October 12, 2025

Lee Friedlander

New York City, 1963

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1963, 22 x 32,9 cm

Museum Ludwig, Cologne

and Luhring Augustine, New York

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Garry Winogrand

New York City, 1969

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1978, 22,9 x 34,2 cm

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Joseph Rodriguez

220 West Houston Street, NY 1984,

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1988, 25,2 x 37,2 cm

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

The street life of cities has always been a fascinating subject for photographers, who have approached it in a variety of ways, from candid images documenting urban unrest to portraits that shine a spotlight on individuals. Since the nineteenth century, cities and photography have been directly linked through the idea of modernity. With the introduction of compact cameras such as the Leica, street photography developed into its own genre in the mid-twentieth century. Small-format cameras gave photographers greater flexibility and enabled them to respond quickly while remaining discrete. They explored public space without obtruding and, in contrast to staged photography, captured candid and spontaneous moments that had previously been considered unworthy photographic subjects. Influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s concept of the “decisive moment,” these photographers sought to capture the fleeting instant when light, composition, and subject aligned to convey the significance of an event.

Lee Friedlander

New York City, 1965

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1965, 22 x 32,9 cm

Museum Ludwig, Cologne

and Luhring Augustine, New York

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Garry Winogrand

Untitled, from: Women are Beautiful, around 1970

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1981, 21,7 x 32,4 cm

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Joseph Rodriguez

I picked him up at a club and I took him to

Brooklyn. He was a happy camper, NY 1984,

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1988, 24,8 x 36,8 cm

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

This exhibition in the Photography Room at the Museum Ludwig is dedicated to three protagonists from two generations of street photography: Garry Winogrand (b. 1928 in New York, d. 1984), Lee Friedlander (b. 1934 in Aberdeen, Washington, based in New York), and Joseph Rodríguez (b. 1951 in Brooklyn, based in New York). Despite all three photographers sharing the same subject matter, each one pursues a singular approach that produces distinct results. Iconic photographs from the 1960s to the 1980s are displayed alongside lesser-known examples from each photographer’s oeuvre. All of the works on display were included in donations made by the Bartenbach Family in 2015 and Volker Heinen in 2018, or have been acquired by the Museum Ludwig since 2001.

Lee Friedlander

New York City, 1966

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1966, 22 x 32,9 cm

and Luhring Augustine, New York

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Lee Friedlander

Mount Rushmore, 1969

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1969, 22 x 32,9 cm

Museum Ludwig, Cologne

and Luhring Augustine, New York

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

The landmark exhibition "New Documents" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1967 helped launch the careers of Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander. Their striking photographs broke with visual conventions, such as a level horizon line or a centered main subject. Garry Winogrand frequently tilted his viewfinder, producing skewed horizon lines that offer a new view of reality and make his images appear spontaneous, as does his purposeful use of blurriness, overexposure, underexposure, and backlighting. Lee Friedlander, in turn, created compositions in which the viewer’s gaze is hindered by obstructions, such as shadows, signs, architectural elements, and streetlights, or is disoriented by reflections.

Garry Winogrand

Circle Line Statue of Liberty Ferry, New York, 1971

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1973, 21,7 x 32,4 cm

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Garry Winogrand

Untitled, from: Women are Beautiful, around 1973

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1973, 21,7 x 32,4 cm

Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander, who are represented in the exhibition with twenty images each, both use photography in a self-reflective way that brings the formal aspects of photography to the fore. This encourages an analytical gaze, producing an emotional distance between the viewer and the subject, which often results in ambivalent images where the intention of the photographer remains unclear. Garry Winogrand and Lee Friedlander each developed their own distinct style, embracing originality and authorship by merging documentary photography and personal expression. While they attempted to distance themselves from photojournalism and social documentary photography, eschewing eventbased, narrative-focused, and emotionally charged imagery, Joseph Rodriguez’s work deliberately engages with these genres. He aspires to give visibility to marginalized people by communicating with his subjects and attempting to tell their stories. Many of his photographs are accompanied by short commentaries that provide information about the context in which each image was created. Joseph Rodríguez’s pictures employ unusual perspectives and surprising compositions, and his use of reflections emphasizes the subjectivity of the photographer’s empathic gaze beyond the momentariness of the shot. The exhibition features around twenty photographs from his Taxi series.

Joseph Rodriguez

East Village, NY, 1984

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1988, 25,3 x 37,4 cm

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

Joseph Rodriguez

Pulaski Skyway, New Jersey, 1984

Gelatin silver paper, print after 1988, 25,2 x 37,2 cm

Repro: Historisches Archiv mit Rheinischem Bildarchiv

This is the first exhibition in the new Photography Rooms at the Museum Ludwig, centrally located on the second floor.

Curator: Barbara Engelbach

MUSEUM LUDWIG

Heinrich-Böll-Platz , 50667 Köln

www.museum-ludwig.de

Street Photography - Lee Friedlander, Joseph Rodríguez, Garry Winogrand

Museum Ludwig, Cologne, May 3 – October 12, 2025

23/07/25

Martin Parr. Early Works @ f3 – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin

Martin Parr. Early Works

f3 – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin

September 13 – November 30, 2025

Siehe die Deutsche Version unten

MARTIN PARR

Osmond Fan, Manchester, England 1973

MARTIN PARR

Tom Greenwood cleaning, Hangingroyd Road,

Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, England 1975

MARTIN PARR

Stonehenge, Wiltshire, England 1975

MARTIN PARR (*1952, Epsom, Surrey, UK) is one of the most important British documentary photographers and photojournalists. He became internationally known for his large-format, colorful photographs that humorously scrutinize British society. With his ironic and socially critical view of everyday situations, he has made photographic history.

The exhibition Martin Parr. Early Works focuses on the early work of the MAGNUM photographer and presents 75 rarely shown black and white images. Bird clubs in Surrey, pilgrimages to the Pope in Ireland, holiday trips to the Scottish Highlands, provincial football matches, and traditional village banquets are just some of the social events that grasped the young Martin Parr’s attention. Exaggeration and emphasis – two key elements of his work – run like a thread through these photographs. The strength of his images lies in the precise observation of everyday situations and in their focus on the seemingly unspectacular. Local traditions, street life, and the unforgettable fluctuating island weather: Martin Parr compels us to take a second look and cherish the funny sides of life.

MARTIN PARR

Mayor of Todmorden's inaugural banquet, Todmorden,

West Yorkshire, England 1977

MARTIN PARR

Surrey Bird Club, Surrey, England 1972

MARTIN PARR

Glastonbury Tor, Somerset, England 1975

Included in the exhibition are some of Parr’s encompassing views such as "Mayor of Todmorden’s Inaugural Banquet", from 1977, where hungry guests squeeze shoulder to shoulder, not to miss the best dish. Also outstanding is the photograph "Surrey Bird Club", which shows two couples in 1972, equipped with binoculars and engaging in their favorite hobby: birdwatching. Or "Glastonbury Tor", featuring an animal protagonist – a cow – posing like a sightseer in search of attractions at the popular tourist hotspot Glastonbury Tor.

MARTIN PARR

Steep Lane Baptist Chapel buffet lunch, Sowerby,

Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England 1977

MARTIN PARR

Elland, West Yorkshire, England 1978

MARTIN PARR

Lynotts Bar, Manorhamilton, County Leitrim, Ireland 1983

At first glance, nostalgia or romanticism seem to be at the forefront, but Martin Parr questions the subjects of his photographs and their seemingly ordinary actions. With an almost anthropological interest, he dissects our behavior, prompts us to reflect, and reveals – both humorously and critically – the complexity and absurdity of modern life.

MARTIN PARR studied photography at Manchester Polytechnic and began his career in the 1970s. Initially working in black and white, he switched to colour photography in the mid-1980s. He has been a member of the renowned MAGNUM photo agency since 1994. Martin Parr has published over a hundred books of his own and has curated numerous festivals, including the Rencontres d'Arles and the Brighton Biennale. His photographs are exhibited worldwide and are represented in many collections. The Martin Parr Foundation was established in 2014 and is based in Bristol since 2017.

Accompanying the exhibition, the publication "MARTIN PARR. Early Works" is available.

Martin Parr. Early Works was curated by Celina Lunsford (Fotografie Forum Frankfurt) in close collaboration with the photographer and the Martin Parr Foundation.

________

MARTIN PARR (*1952, Epsom, Surrey, GB) ist einer der wichtigsten britischen Dokumentarfotografen und Fotojournalisten. International bekannt wurde er mit seinen großformatigen, farbenfrohen Fotografien, welche die britische Gesellschaft humorvoll unter die Lupe nehmen. Mit seinem ironischen und sozialkritischen Blick auf Alltagssituationen hat er Fotografie-Geschichte geschrieben.

Die Ausstellung Martin Parr. Early Works konzentriert sich auf das frühe Werk des MAGNUM-Fotografen und präsentiert 75 selten gezeigte Schwarz-Weiß Aufnahmen. Vogelklub-Aktivitäten im englischen Surrey, Pilgerfahrten zum Papst in Irland, Urlaubsreisen in die schottischen Highlands, Fußballspiele in der Provinz und traditionelle Dorffeste sind nur einige der gesellschaftlichen Aktivitäten, die das Interesse des jungen Martin Parr wecken. Die Übertreibung und Zuspitzung – zwei Schlüsselelemente seines Werkes – ziehen sich wie ein roter Faden durch die Fotografien. Die Stärke seiner Aufnahmen liegt in der präzisen Beobachtung alltäglicher Situationen und in ihrer Konzentration auf das scheinbar Unspektakuläre. Lokale Traditionen, das Straßenleben und das wechselhafte Inselwetter: Martin Parr bringt uns dazu zweimal hinzusehen und die skurrilen, humorvollen Seiten des Lebens zu entdecken.

Teil der Werkschau sind auch einige von Parrs eindrucksvollsten Aufnahmen, darunter »Mayor of Todmorden’s Inaugural Banquet«, eine Szene an einem Buffet, an dem sich hungrige Gäste Schulter an Schulter drängen, um den besten Happen zu ergattern, aus dem Jahr 1977. Herausragend auch die Fotografie »Surrey Bird Club«, auf der zwei Paare zu sehen sind, die sich 1972 mit Feldstechern ausgestattet ihrem liebsten Hobby widmen: der Beobachtung von Vögeln. Oder »Glastonbury Tor«, die Aufnahme einer tierischen Protagonistin – einer Kuh – die wie eine Ausflüglerin auf der Jagd nach Sehenswürdigkeiten an dem touristischen Hotspot Glastonbury Tor posiert.

Auf den ersten Blick dominieren Nostalgie oder Romantik die Aufnahmen, doch Martin Parr hinterfragt die Akteur*innen seiner Fotografien und deren scheinbar alltägliche Handlungen. Mit nahezu anthropologischem Interesse seziert er unser Verhalten, regt uns zur Reflexion an und zeigt auf komische und kritische Weise die Komplexität und Absurdität des modernen Lebens auf.

MARTIN PARR studierte Fotografie am Manchester Polytechnic und begann seine Karriere in den 1970er-Jahren. Zunächst arbeitete er in Schwarz-Weiß, wechselte aber Mitte der 1980er-Jahre zur Farbfotografie. Seit 1994 ist er Mitglied der renommierten Agentur MAGNUMPhotos. Martin Parr hat über hundert eigene Bücher veröffentlicht und war bei zahlreichen Festivals als Kurator tätig, darunter Rencontres d`Arles und Brighton Biennale. Seine Fotografien werden weltweit ausgestellt und sind in vielen Museumssammlungen vertreten. 2014 gründete er die Martin Parr Foundation mit Sitz in Bristol.

Martin Parr. Early Works wurde kuratiert von Celina Lunsford (Fotografie Forum Frankfurt) in enger Zusammenarbeit mit dem Fotografen und der Martin Parr Foundation.

f³ – freiraum für fotografie

Prinzessinnenstrasse 30, 10969 Berlin

www.fhochdrei.org

21/07/25

Women, Football & Photography @ f³ – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin - "SHE CAN KICK IT! Women's Football and Photography" Exhibition

SHE CAN KICK IT!

Women's Football and Photography

f3 – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin

Through September 7, 2025

Dewey Nicks

Marta Vieira da Silva for The New York Times, 2009

Hy Money

1970s, England. Photographed by Hy Money

Harriet Duffy

From the series Football Came Home, 2022

An exhibition with works by: Caterina Barjau, Günther Bauer, Christophe Berlet, Thomas Böcker, Harriet Duffy, Laura Freigang, Johanna-Maria Fritz, Kai Heuser, Elliot James Kennedy, Alice Mann, Susan Meiselas, Hy Money, Dewey Nicks, Anja Niedringhaus, Cait Oppermann, David Ramos, Dana Rösiger, Josefine Seifert, Daniel Silva Yoshisato, Dorothea Tuch, Alexa Vachon, Viridiana, Anna Ziegler.

Hardly any sport is as emotionally charged as football—especially women's football. It has been ridiculed, it has been banned. Even the German Football Association (DFB) wanted to protect women from this “rough sport” and, in 1955, prohibited its affiliated clubs from offering women's football, stating: “In the struggle for the ball, feminine grace is lost.” It wasn't until 1970 that the association lifted the ban. Today, women’s football is celebrated—almost everywhere in the world. Players like Megan Rapinoe from the USA have become icons, fighting for equality and against the sexualization of women's bodies. They are role models for girls and effective ambassadors for advertising. Yet, there are still major disparities compared to the men's game—whether in opportunities to play or in compensation.

In honor of the UEFA Women's EURO 2025 in Switzerland, SHE CAN KICK IT! brings women's football into visual focus: from artistic photo series by renowned photographers such as Susan Meiselas, a member of the prestigious Magnum Photos agency, to personal snapshots from national team player Laura Freigang. The exhibition explores the complex history of women's football and highlights the many challenges surrounding the topic.

Anja Niedringhaus

Germany's Kerstin Garefrekes (18), Annike Krahn (5)

fight for the ball with Brazil's Tania (4) and Renata Costa (5)

during their final match at

the 2007 FIFA Women's World Cup soccer tournament

in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2007

Anja Niedringhaus, world-renowned for her images from war and crisis zones, photographed the jubilant women’s national football team led by captain Birgit Prinz at the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2007. Her images capture the tension, focus, and will to win felt by both teams.

Susan Meiselas

Stretch exercise before training session,

National female soccer team, San Diego, California, 1998

In 1998, Susan Meiselas documented the training of the U.S. women’s national team in San Diego, creating a series of touching behind-the-scenes photos. Stars like Brandi Chastain and Briana Scurry, whose names are now spoken with reverence by young players, appear in these intimate settings.

Elliot James Kennedy

Leah Williamson for British GQ, 2022

Dorothea Tuch

Türkiyemspor, Berlin, 2025

Laura Freigang

Selfportrait, Paris, 2024

A glimpse into the life of a current national player is offered by Laura Freigang of Eintracht Frankfurt. She always has her Leica camera with her—on the team bus, at training, or at the after-show party. Young, unconventional, and with a distinctive style, she documents her own life and that of her teammates.

Cait Oppermann

Megan Rapinoe for TIME 100, 2020

The photographs by Cait Oppermann, who shot the U.S. women’s soccer team for the TIME Magazine cover in 2019, mark a turning point in the players’ public image—from ridiculed outsiders to international icons and role models.

For the anniversary issue of 11 Freunde magazine in 2025, Anna Ziegler portrayed the feminist and antifascist fan club Nutria Bande, which supports women’s football in Frankfurt. Personal stories from the Global South are told through the series by award-winning

Daniel Silva Yoshisato

From the series Women Soccer Player from the Sky, 2004

Johanna-Maria Fritz

From the series Testimony for Change, Sudan, 2021

Alexa Vachon

Juhi, from the Series Wundergirl, 2017

German photographer Johanna-Maria Fritz, who accompanied a team in Sudan, and Alexa Vachon, who visited girls in India at home: despite social pressure, they remain devoted to their passion for football and proudly pose in their jerseys.

The world’s first women’s football team, the British Ladies, was founded in 1894 by Nettie Honeyball. Today, over 130 years later, women’s football has entered the public consciousness—yet as an emancipatory act, it remains as vital and relevant as ever.

The exhbition was curated by Nadine Barth and Katharina Mouratidi.

f³ – freiraum für fotografie

Prinzessinnenstrasse 30, 10969 Berlin

fhochdrei.org

SHE CAN KICK IT! Women's Football and Photography

f³ – freiraum für fotografie, Berlin, June 27 — September 7, 2025

23/04/25

Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany @ Fondazione Prada, Milan - Exhibition Curated by Suzanne Pfeffer

Typologien

Photography in 20th-Century Germany

Fondazione Prada, Milan

Through 14 July 2025

Fondazione Prada presents “Typologien,” an extensive study dedicated to 20th-century German photography, at its Milan venue. The exhibition, hosted within Podium, the central building of the Milan headquarters, is curated by Susanne Pfeffer, art historian and director of the MUSEUM MMK FÜR MODERNE KUNST, Frankfurt.

The exhibition attempts to apply the principle of “typology,” which originated in 17th- and 18th-century botany to categorize and study plants, and appeared in photography in the early 1900s, affirming itself in Germany throughout the 20th century. Paradoxically, the given formal principle allows for unexpected convergences of German artists spanning different generations and the manifestation of their individual approaches.

The exhibition path follows a typological rather than a chronological order, bringing together more than 600 photographic works by 25 established and lesser-known artists essential for recounting a century of German photography, including Bernd and Hilla Becher, Sibylle Bergemann, Karl Blossfeldt, Ursula Böhmer, Christian Borchert, Margit Emmrich, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Isa Genzken, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Lotte Jacobi, Jochen Lempert, Simone Nieweg, Sigmar Polke, Gerhard Richter, Heinrich Riebesehl, Thomas Ruff, August Sander, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Thomas Struth, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, Umbo (Otto Umbehr), and Marianne Wex. A system of suspended walls creates geometric partitions in the exhibition space, forming unexpected connections between artistic practices that differ from each other, but are united by a common principle or intention of classification.

As stated by Susanne Pfeffer, “Only through juxtaposition and direct comparison is it possible to find out what is individual and what is universal, what is normative or real. Differences are evidence of the abundance of nature and the imagination of humans: the fern, the cow, the human being, the ear; the bus stop, the water tower, the stereo system, the museum. The typological comparison allows differences and similarities to emerge and the specifics to be grasped. Unknown or previously unperceived things about nature, the animal, or the object, about place and time become visible and recognizable.”

In photography, employing typologies means affirming an equivalence between images and the absence of hierarchies in terms of represented subjects, motifs, genres, and sources. Despite this, typology remains a highly challenging and complex notion. It operates in a paradoxical regime: on the one hand, this approach can lead to a systematic recording of people and objects based on extreme objectivity; on the other hand, typology corresponds to an individual and arbitrary choice, revealing itself as a disturbing and potentially subversive act.

The hypothesis that photography plays a key role not only in fixing distinctive phenomena but also in organizing and classifying a plurality of visible manifestations remains a vital force in today’s artistic efforts to navigate the complexity of our social and cultural realities. With the spread of digital imagery and practices, the concept of typology continues to be questioned and re-defined by contemporary photographers and artists.

As underlined by Susanne Pfeffer, “The unique, the individual, seems to have been absorbed into a global mass, the universality of things is omnipresent. The Internet allows typologies to be created in a matter of seconds. And yet this is precisely when it seems important—to artists—to take a closer look.” As further explained by Pfeffer, “When the present seems to have abandoned the future, we need to observe the past more closely. When everything seems to be shouting at you and becoming increasingly brutal, it is important to take a quiet pause and use the silence to see and think clearly. When differences are not seen as something other, but turned into something that divides us, it is crucial to notice what we have in common. Typologies allow us to identify remarkable similarities and subtle differences.”

In the early 20th century, Karl Blossfeldt (1865–1932) was one of the first artists to transfer the classification system used in botanical studies to photography. His vast and detailed plant atlas represented a foundational moment for German Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). This artistic and photographic movement emerged in the 1920s during the Weimar Republic and promoted the importance of categories and distinctions and the remarkable ability of photography as a medium to explore the very idea of typology.

Another pioneering figure was August Sander (1876–1964), who published his photo book Antlitz der Zeit (Face of Our Time) in 1929, at the time excerpted from his landmark project Menschen des 20. Jahrhunderts (People of the 20th Century). Described by Walter Benjamin as a “training atlas” of physiognomic perception, Antlitz der Zeit was an ambitious attempt to portray the diversity and the structure of German society using class, gender, age, occupation, and social background as distinct categories of a rigid and neutral classification system.

Both Karl Blossfeldt’s and August Sander’s typologies were fundamental for Bernd Becher (1931–2007) and Hilla Becher (1934–2015) when, at the end of the fifties, they began an enormous and lifelong documentation and preservation project of industrial architecture. In 1971, they described the “industrial constructions” as “objects, not motifs”. They stated that “the information we want to provide is only created through the sequence, through the juxtaposition of similar or different objects with the same function”. Their black-and-white monuments, or “anonymous sculptures”, isolated against a monochromatic sky, centered, framed in the same format and arranged in a block, became an essential reference for American and European Post-Minimalist and Conceptual artists. They also represented a rich heritage for younger generations of German artists and photographers, such as Andreas Gursky (b. 1955), Candida Höfer (b. 1944), Simone Nieweg (b. 1962), Thomas Ruff (b. 1958) and Thomas Struth (b. 1954), who studied at the Academy in Düsseldorf in the class led by Bernd and Hilla Becher from 1976.

Hans-Peter Feldmann (1941–2023), internationally recognised for his fundamental contribution to conceptual art, traced a complementary trajectory in German photography. In his works, he documented everyday objects and historical events and combined deadpan humor with a systematic approach to accumulating, cataloguing, and rearranging elements of contemporary visual culture. In his series, he invented personal yet very political typologies and adopted a deliberate snapshot approach with a commercial aesthetic. For his work Alle Kleider einer Frau (All the Clothes of a Woman, 1975), he took 35mm-format photographs of underwear, hosiery, T-shirts, dresses, trousers, skirts, socks, and shoes, all hanging on hangers on the wall or laid on dark fabric. With his project Die Toten 1967–1993 (The Dead 1967–1993, 1996–98), he paid homage to individuals murdered in the context of the political and terroristic movements in Post-War Germany. As pointed out by Susanne Pfeffer, “With his typologies, he emphasized the equal value of all photographs, their image sources and motifs, and underscored the de-hierarchization inherent in every typology.”

In his apparently random collection of found, personal or pornographic images, press clippings, and historical photos of Nazi concentration camps, the Red Army Faction and German reunification, a “private album” named Atlas (1962 – present), Gerhard Richter (b. 1932) seemed to deny or challenge the very idea of typology. Instead, he took the principle of equivalence between images and their trivialization process to the limits, creating a jarring contrast and an acute awareness of a repressed collective memory.

In the seventies and eighties, in a dialectic relationship with the artistic lessons of the Bechers, Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, and Thomas Struth progressively abandoned the radicalism and black-and-white purism of their professors. They explored the colorful dominance of banality in their series of individual or family portraits, monumental and detailed city views, and spectacular documentation of cultural or tourist sites, generating a plethora of contemporary and conflicting typologies.

In the late seventies and early eighties, multimedia artist Isa Genzken (b. 1948) engaged in a direct dialogue with the photographic medium. In 1979, she created a series entitled Hi-Fi that featured advertisements of avant-garde Japanese stereo equipment, organizing them in an imaginary commercial catalog. The second series entitled Ohr (Ear) (1980) depicted, in large-scale color close-ups, the ears of random women Genzken photographed on the streets of New York City. She transferred the traditional portrait genre to physiognomic detail and ironically investigating the absolute singularity and infinite individual differentiation the photographic portrait can record.

Typologien

Photography in 20th-Century Germany

Image courtesy of the Fondazione Pada

An illustrated book, published by Fondazione Prada and designed by Zak Group, accompanies the exhibition “Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany”. It includes an introduction by Miuccia Prada, President and Director of Fondazione Prada, a text by the exhibition curator Susanne Pfeffer and three essays by renowned international art historians and curators Benjamin Buchloh, Tom Holert, and Renée Mussai.

FONDAZIONE PRADA, MILAN

Largo Isarco 2, 20139 Milano

www.fondazioneprada.org

Typologien: Photography in 20th-Century Germany @ Fondazione Prada, Milan, 3 April - 14 July 2025

Thomas Struth @ Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

Thomas Struth

Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin

25 April – 21 June 2025

THOMAS STRUTH

Semi Submersible Rig, DSME Shipyard,

Geoje Island 2007, 2007

Courtesy of Galerie Max Hetzler

Galerie Max Hetzler presents a solo exhibition of works by THOMAS STRUTH at Potsdamer Strasse 77-87 in Berlin. This exhibition offers visitors a new and, at times, surprising insight into Struth’s oeuvre over the past four decades.

Thomas Struth’s work is characterised by his long-term and careful pursuit of themes that revolve, in various guises, around the relationship between people and their environment. His photographs, which harmonise forms of documentation and contemplation, capture today’s society through images of cultural spaces, as well as the natural world, portraiture and places of industrial and technological innovation.

At the start of the exhibition, one of Struth’s most recent works, Hinakapoʻula, Hawaiʻi 2024, draws viewers into the depths of densely wooded Hawaiian mountain. On the gallery’s far wall, Semi Submersible Rig, DSME Shipyard, Geoje Island 2007 depicts an industrial megastructure on the southern coast of South Korea. Its monumental size and four mighty pillars are emphasised by the perspective of the steel colossus which stretches up to the upper edge of the picture.

The earliest portraits in the exhibition, taken in the 1980s, constitute some of the artist’s most rarely seen works. Thomas Struth has long been interested in the depiction of people, as exemplified in his celebrated Family Portraits, which convey the intricacies of family dynamics. By contrast, the portraits in this exhibition focus on the relationship between subject and photographer. They seek to capture the presence of the individual and thus make visible an incomprehensible yet universally recognisable facet of humanity.

Since the late 1980s, Thomas Struth has also explored the special relationship people have with works of art, and the places that house them. His Museum Photographs depict viewers confronting their own civilisation across the ages. In 2023, the artist spent several days at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, where he photographed visitors in front of Édouard Manet’s The Execution of Maximilian, 1867–1868 and Edgar Dégas’ The Bellelli Family, 1958–1967. In the resulting diptych, titled The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Diptych), New York 2023, Thomas Struth alludes to a historic connection between the two artists: following his death, Manet’s family cut up his painting to sell it in parts; the surviving fragments were later acquired by Degas, and were eventually reassembled in the late 1970s. Adding further layers to the work, Thomas Struth captures present-day museum visitors as they photograph the painting with their luminous smartphones. Spaces, times, cultures and attitudes are layered and combined, mediated via the artworks and their audience, and the viewer of the photograph.

The New Pictures from Paradise represented in this exhibition date from the early 2000s, the decade that saw a heightened awareness of the fragility and importance of the natural world. In these photographs, Struth aims to depict a diversity so dense that individual components are no longer identifiable to the human eye and an impression of inaccessibility prevails instead.

A similar experience is at play in Struth’s Nature & Politics photographs, initiated in 2007. In the present exhibition, these are represented through scenes from aerospace technology and nuclear fusion test centres. In Tokamak Asdex Upgrade Periphery, Max Planck Ipp, Garching 2009, a bewildering tangle of colour-coded wires conveys the unfathomable reality of advanced technology to the untrained eye. Its promise of future innovation remains abstract and intangible.

THOMAS STRUTH (b. 1954) lives and works in Berlin. Struth has exhibited his work at Galerie Max Hetzler on a regular basis since 1987. Major retrospectives were held at the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2019) and the Haus der Kunst, Munich (2017). In 2016, his comprehensive solo exhibition Nature & Politics opened at the Museum Folkwang, Essen, before being presented at the Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, the High Museum, Atlanta, the Moody Center for the Arts, Houston, and finally the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri. Other major solo exhibitions have taken place at international institutions including MAST Foundation, Bologna (2019); Aspen Art Museum (2018); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2014 and 2003); Kunsthaus Zürich; Museu Serralves, Porto and K20, Düsseldorf (all 2011); Museo del Prado, Madrid (2007); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Dallas Museum of Art (2002).

Thomas Struth’s works are in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Dallas Museum of Art; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin; Kunsthaus Zürich; Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA, Los Angeles; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reine Sofía, Madrid; National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; The Museum of Modern Art, New York and Tate, London, among others.

GALERIE MAX HETZLER

Potsdamer Strasse 77-87, 10785 Berlin

www.maxhetzler.com