Following the first part of my personal view of the “Berlin Photo Scene” published earlier this month, here in Part 2 I want to re-introduce and feature some more important protagonists. Only with them and their work does the photography scene come full circle. See for yourself and enjoy!
THE Photography Foundation
Name: Dr. Matthias Harder
Title: Director + Curator
Company: Helmut Newton Foundation
Your 3 favorite projects to date:
Of course, I like all shows we did at the HNF, but if I have to list my top 3, I’d say: Pages from Glossies, Saul Leiter, and the current one, Body Performance.
The first of those exhibitions, displayed in 2016, offered viewers a new perspective on many of Helmut Newton’s iconic photographs. Spanning more than four decades, the images were presented as facsimiles of the original magazine pages in which they were published between 1956 and 1998. During this considerable period of time, Newton was regularly commissioned by publishers and editors from renowned magazines around the world to share his version and vision of contemporary fashion. Second, Saul Leiter was displayed alongside Newton and David Lynch in 2018. It marked the first time in the history of our institution that an exhibition was dedicated exclusively to the genre of nude photography. Leiter is known for his fashion photography for the likes of Harper’s Bazaar as well as colorful abstractions he captured on the streets of New York from the late 1940s onwards. But he also photographed nudes in the studio. We presented for the first time more than 200 vintage and late prints – subtle, sensitive, almost shy approaches to the female body and spirit. The third show I’d like to mention is Body Performance, which is on view through May 2020. Performance is an independent art form, and photography is its constant companion. For the first time in Germany, this group exhibition brings together photo sequences whose origins lie in performance art, dance, and other staged events, complemented by a selection of street photography and conceptual photography series by the likes of Cindy Sherman, Robert Longo, Viviane Sassen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Vanessa Beecroft, and Erwin Wurm. With their common focus on the human body, the images document or interpret performances, which in many cases have also been initiated by the photographers themselves.
Most successful exhibitions: I think our most successful exhibition at the foundation in Berlin was Newton/Testino/Pigozzi in 2017 in terms of the numbers of visitors and press articles. With the installation Undressed, conceived exclusively for the Helmut Newton Foundation, Mario Testino explored the physical notion of undressing in terms of fashion, eroticism, anatomy, and art. 50 larger-than-life images were affixed directly to the walls in three of the foundation’s exhibition halls, reaching into the corners of the room and up to the ceiling. This presentation form was unique to both Testino’s work as well as the exhibition history of our foundation, filling the rooms with bodies and emotions to create an imposing human landscape.
We regularly share our Newton exhibitions with other venues as well. The most successful one outside of Berlin was in 2012 at the Grand Palais in Paris with 3,000 visitors per day. The show later traveled to Stockholm, Amsterdam, and Athens with a similar attendance rate, and in a slightly different form it will soon visit Buenos Aires.
Upcoming shows:
The show America 1970s/80s. Hofer, Metzner, Meyerowitz, Newton, which opens on 28 May 2020 will reveal how Newton’s visual language changed while he was in the United States during these years. Three additional great photographers have been selected for the group show on this progressive and hip time in the US half a century ago, with a variety of series and individual portraits, nudes, street scenes, and fashion shots.
Plus for Newton’s 100th birthday (31 October 2020), we’ll open the new retrospective Helmut Newton Legacy in Berlin with about 300 works including many never-seen or forgotten ones, focusing on his outstanding fashion photography. This show will travel afterwards, too.
Motto/Credo:
Actually, I don’t have a motto. But I try to enjoy art and life, every day.
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
The diversity. Everything exists parallel to each other in Berlin: small and global-player galleries or institutions – they’re all worth a visit. You run into young and unknown, but also internationally renowned photographers and artists regularly, even by chance. It’s an atmosphere where you can discuss photography in all its facets. The Berlin photo scene is fascinating and eye-opening, again and again.
Address:
Helmut Newton Foundation
Jebensstrasse 2
10623 Berlin
www.helmut-newton-foundation.org
IG:
@helmutnewtonfoundation
@harder_matthias
………………………………………………………………………..
THE Photography Auction House
Name: Diandra Donecker
Title: Head of Photographs and Partner, Grisebach GmbH
Company:Villa Grisebach
Your 3 favorite projects to date:
– Rudi Weissenstein – Exile & Photography, July 2019
– Ein Traum von Paris (A Dream of Paris) – Book Release with Georg Stefan Troller on his photos taken in Paris after WW II, May 2019
– Oskar Schmidt – Echoes, September 2019
Your most successful auctions/events:
– Achieving a record price for a Bauhaus Moholy-Nagy photogram in May 2018 – sold for 487,500 euros incl. premium
– Selling a masterpiece (70 prints) by August Sander, People of the 20th C. – sold for 949,000 euros incl. premium
Upcoming projects & cooperations:
– Expert talks about the art market and behind-the-scenes views
– Roundtrip – Ring Sculptures and Photographs, on works about movement by Georg Hornemann, in collaboration with Kicken Berlin, 19–29 February 2020
– Next auction: 3–6 June 2020
Motto/Credo:
I don’t have one.
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
It is dense and not very big. I am looking forward to upcoming projects and more collaborations like our recent ones with Mehdi Chouakri and Kicken. Berlin is a vibrant place, packed with history. Photography has always been important in the city and its tradition of photographers, collectors, and galleries should be nourished so it continues to grow. I admire Hendrik Berinson and his magnificent eye and knowledge; I am very fond of the work Thomas Derda shows in his space; I love to learn about Japanese photography and books in the space run by Roland Angast, Only Photography. I am thankful to everyone who is dedicated to photography and has an understanding of its meaning when we talk about heritage and cultural identity.
Address:
Grisebach GmbH
Fasanenstr. 25
10719 Berlin
IG: @diandradonecker
………………………………………..
THE Photography Studio
Name: Anatol Kotte
Title: Director / Owner / Photographer
Company: CAPITIS Studios / Berlin
Your 3 favorite shows/projects to date:
2020: Porsche People – A fine selection of vintage and contemporary photographs, showing people connected to the brand.
2019: Raúl Canibano – A Cuban, almost surreal, self-educated street photographer.
2019: Günther Rössler – Vintage prints by the Eastern German photographer. Fashion and nudes from 1950–1980.
Your most successful exhibition/project and cooperation:
Porsche People – on view until mid-March.
Successful cooperations with companies including YouTube and Google, the Berlinale film festival, Rolls Royce, Leica, and many more.
Upcoming exhibitions:
The secret works of professional photographers, called triple x.
The 20×24 Polaroid Land Camera sessions.
Motto/Credo:
Surprise me!
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
Big shows, small shows from all the different fields of photography, shoulder to shoulder.
Address:
CAPITIS Studios / Berlin
Kronenstrasse 71
10117 Berlin
IG: @capitisstudios
…………………………………………….
THE Photography Collection
Name: Marc Barbey // Collection Regard
Title: Collector / Director
Your 3 favorite exhibitions to date:
Well the one with which the adventure started has to be named first. The opening exhibition of the Collection Regard in 2011 was titled Hommage a Berlin. It was about war-destroyed Berlin with photographs by Hein Gorny shot from the ground and from the air, which confirmed the fact that showing unknown, high-quality photographers or photographic positions in order to contribute to the photographic discourse is the right thing to do.
It is difficult to choose from the 20+ shows we did at the collection in Berlin as well as the 30+ shows outside the collection. Barbara Wolff – In One´s Own Account, holds a special place in my heart, with its humanistic, personal, and magic photographs. We first presented it in 2017 in Berlin, then in 2018 at the Fotohaus festival in Arles, and last year at the Museum of Vendôme at Les Promenades Photographiques.
The current show Anno Wilms – Identity and Contrast has given me a chance to discover a very special and strong position by a Berlin photographer that has the magnitude to become a singular classic outside the mainstream.
Your most successful exhibitions:
The most successful show on the premises of the collection was Christian Schulz – West Berlin 1981–1989. Held in 2017, it was an incomparable success in terms of visitors and sales (Collection Regard is not only a collection, an estate, and an exhibition space but also a gallery). To commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall we developed a special version for Hotel de Rome in late 2019, as Berlin 89/90 – Photographs Christian Schulz.
Outside the premises, our most successful show so far was Hein Gorny – New Objectivity and Industry with Antonio Panetta and Francois Hebel at the the Foto/Industria biennial in Bologna. The show traveled to MAMM in Moscow with Olga Slibova where it had 30,000 visitors. After being shown in Berlin in the collection it has since been presented in excerpts in Paris and Arles, among others.
Upcoming projects & cooperations:
Hein Gorny at:
Biennale für aktuelle Fotografie, Mannheim: 29 February – 26 April – opening on 28 February
Between Art and Commerce
Curator: David Campany
With works by Hein Gorny, Scheltens & Abbenes, Bryan Schutmaat, Daniel Stier, Christopher Williams, Thomas Wunsch
https://biennalefotografie.de/en/edition/exhibitions
Port 25 – Raum für Gegenwartskunst
Hafenstrasse 25-27
68159 Mannheim
Margret Hoppe at:
La Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseille: 15 March –26 April – opening on 13 March
Margret Hoppe – Südwall
Curators: Laura Serani and William Guidarini
http://www.lafriche.org/fr/agenda/sudwall-margret-hoppe-1871
La Friche de la Belle de Mai
41 rue Jobin
13003 Marseille
Hein Gorny at:
Collection Regard, Berlin: 24 April – 19 June – opening on 23 April
Photos by Hein Gorny
Curator: Marc Barbey
Motto/Credo:
Do something relevant for photographers and photography
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
Its variety and internationality. I wish there were more political vision and financial support for the scene, especially for the important events but mostly for the photographers and the smaller spaces that make the ecosystem vibrant and alive.
Address:
Steinstrasse 12
10119 Berlin
IG: @collectionregard
……………………………………….
THE Photography Writer
Name: Jens Pepper
Title: Writer/Curator
Your 3 favorite projects to date:
I have done so many interesting things that I can’t tell which is more important than the other. I had a fantastic adventure in 2016: after living in Berlin for 29 years, I decided to move to Warsaw, Poland for one-and-a-half years. I needed a change and wanted to get to know a new city. Eastern and Central Europe had not been in my focus so much before. After moving to Warsaw, I started to interview Polish photographers, gallerists, photo collectors, a photo book historian, the curators of the photo festivals in Krakow and Lodz, etc. to learn about the photo scene in Poland. Hardly anything is known about it in Germany and I wanted to change this a little. The project resulted in a book about this scene: Gespräche über polnische Fotografie (Conversations on Polish Photography) was published by KLAK Verlag in Berlin in November 2017.
I also loved doing live interviews with people from the photo world at Barbiche, a bar run by a friend of mine, Lena Braun, with whom I had a gallery in West Berlin in 1989/1990. When I returned to Berlin after my time in Warsaw, she had a new place in Potsdamer Strasse where she organized concerts, poetry slams, gay parties, etc. She asked me to do a program there and I decided to start Pepper’s Photo Chat Live on a monthly basis. Among others my conversation guests were the photographers Annette Hauschild, Eylül Aslan, Winfried Bullinger, Miron Zownir, and Joachim Baldauf. I also talked with gallerists Robert Morat and Heide Springer and critic/curator Ralf Hanselle. I did these chats until Lena closed the bar in summer 2019. I plan to start this series of conversations again this year and am currently looking for an interesting location.
Your most successful cooperation:
I am lucky to have met Jörg Becken from KLAK Verlag shortly before I left for Poland. He became my publisher for my interview books, which focus on photography, although the main program of this Berlin- based publishing house is literature from Eastern and Central Europe. At some point during my stay in Warsaw, Jörg was in town and we had dinner together. When he found out that I was doing these interviews, he invited me to publish them as a book at KLAK. That offer was like a jackpot for me. In December 2019 he published my newest book, which is about the Berlin photo scene (Fotoszene Berlin), again based on interviews, and with photographs of the interviewees by Christian Reister. He also will do my next one about the photo scene in the Netherlands.
Upcoming projects & cooperations:
New books on photography, new public interviews with photographers, a huge exhibition about contemporary Polish photography, and more.
Motto/Credo:
Enjoy everything you do.
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
Its diversity and the huge amount of exhibition venues where you can see new trends in photography and classical positions from all over the world at every time of the year.
Website:
IG: @photosbypepper
…………………………..
THE Photography Curator
Name: Alice Le Campion
Title: Independent Curator
Your 3 favorite exhibitions to date:
My favorite exhibitions at Chaussee 36 include the group exhibition Women on View, which addressed female representation in commercial photography in the second part of the 20th Century. Also, Bert Stern’s exhibition Shapes and Symbols, which highlights the emergence of creative color photography in advertising in the 1950s and ‘60s. Then there was Chasing Dreams, an exhibition of Erwin Blumenfeld’s experimental studies of the female body. This last exhibition included a discussion between Howard Greenberg and Simone Klein on collecting vintage photography, which was fantastic.
Your most successful exhibitions/cooperations/events:
The opening of Berlin Photo Week in 2019 at Chaussee 36 was amazing. We presented three very diverse exhibitions, and it was also a “preview” of the Chaussee 36’s forthcoming main exhibition space, where Olaf Heine’s work was exhibited.
The group show Women on View featuring photographs by renowned artists such as Lillian Bassman, Horst P. Horst, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Frank Horvat, Jeanloup Sieff, Hans Feurer, Albert Watson, Peter Lindbergh, and Ellen von Unwerth.
Upcoming projects:
Chaussee 36 is taking on tour an extended version of the exhibition Women of View which will be shown at the Frauenmuseum in Wiesbaden, Germany in September 2020. In parallel, I am working on a cycle of exhibitions exploring the meaning of the erotic and also planning a series of exhibitions of Berlin-based photographers in New York City.
Motto/Credo:
Don’t wait for the perfect moment. Take the moment, make it perfect.
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
I love the diversity and cultural richness of the city. But also, even though very good institutions have been established like C/O Berlin, there are still plenty of opportunities to propose and introduce new ideas to make this environment even more dynamic!
IG:
@chaussee36photography
@alicelecampion
…………………………..
THE Photography Advisor
Name: Benjamin Jaeger
Title: Photography & Art Advisor
Your 3 favorite projects to date:
During my 13 years as head of a renowned photography gallery, I was of course able to organize a lot of extraordinary and highly acclaimed exhibitions. Now as an independent advisor and curator, my favorite recent projects have been:
– Multimedia Installation schwarz, weiß, rot with artworks by Sven Marquardt in cooperation with PC Neumann at Kraftwerk Berlin
– Exhibition Uncomfortably Beautiful with collages by Justine Läufer as well as the amazing collaboration How could we not with her and artist Tina Berning
– Peter Lindbergh Soiree in cooperation with DCM on the occasion of the screening of the documentary Peter Lindbergh – Women’s stories during Berlinale 2019
Your most successful exhibitions/cooperations/events:
– Berlin Photo Week 2019 with over 30,000 visitors
– Exhibition Saudade by Olaf Heine at Chaussee 36 with over 2.000 visitors during the opening.
– Establishing the OPEN STUDIO format during both ArtWeek and Gallery Weekend in various artist studios.
Upcoming projects & cooperations:
– Exhibition Cure by Evelyn Bencicova during Photofestival CONTACT in Toronto
– Multimedia installation with Jacob Felländer at Kraftwerk Berlin on the occasion of Gallery Weekend 2020
– Berlin Photo Week 2020
– Exhibition with Andy Kassier
Motto/Credo:
Happy coincidence!
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
Berlin is a city of juxtaposition. As an international melting pot for art and photography, Berlin has a very decent scene of established artists, collectors, galleries, auction houses, and institutions. But there is also a young, dynamic, and hungry crowd constantly reinventing the city with their new energy. Building a platform for exchange and communication for this huge variety of artistic approaches is very exciting.
IG account: jaeger.art.advisory
