Berlin’s multifaceted art scene is world renowned, far beyond its borders. Within this large community of galleries, museums, collections, institutions, project spaces, and studios lies the photography scene as an entity in itself.
Being asked to introduce Berlin’s most interesting representatives of the photography scene was a challenge on its own, as any selection can only be subjective and subject to preferences, experience, and fields of interest. So I am delighted to share now the first part of my “Berlin Photo Scene” – to be continued at the end of this month. – Nadine Dinter
The Photography Institution
Name: Stephan Erfurt
Title: Director and Founder
Company: C/O Berlin
Your 3 favorite projects to date:
NAN GOLDIN exhibition at C/O Berlin Postfuhramt in 2009
ANTON CORBIJN Retrospective at C/O Berlin Amerika Haus with more than 80,000 visitors in 2015
Dancers from SASHA WALTZ & GUESTS make their debut at C/O Berlin for the exhibition IRVING PENN: Centennial (2018)
Your most successful cooperation:
Collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, and the Irving Penn Foundation on the occasion of the Irving Penn exhibition Centennial in 2018
Upcoming projects & cooperations:
Female Power! C/O Berlin shows three female positions from March 6th till June 2020: LINDA MCCARTNEY, FRANCESCA WOODMAN, and SOPHIE THUN
Motto/Credo:
Never solve your problems by excuses.
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
Outstanding is our photo cluster at the train station Zoo in Charlottenburg: C/O Berlin cooperates with the HELMUT NEWTON FOUNDATION and the MUSEUM FOR PHOTOGRAPHY.
IG account:
@stephanerfurt
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The Photography Gallery
Name: Johanna Breede
Title: Gallerist / art dealer
Company: Johanna Breede PHOTOKUNST
Your 3 favorite shows / projects to date:
MAGIC OF SILENCE
23 February – 29 May 2019
HERBERT LIST: Part escape, part desire. The path to exile of the photographer Herbert List
2 October 2018 – 9 February 2019
HEINZ HAJEK-HALKE: Fantasy and Dream
20 October – 24 November 2012
Your most successful exhibition:
STEFAN MOSES: EMIGRANTS
31 March – 21 May 2012
Upcoming exhibition:
HINTER DEN KULISSEN
15 February – 7 March 2020, with works by Birgit Kleber, Volker Schlöndorff, Donata Wenders, and others
Motto/Credo:
Travel with an open heart!
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
The variety!
Address:
Johanna Breede
Fasanenstrasse 69
10719 Berlin
www.johanna-breede.com
IG account:
@jb_photokunst
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The Radical Photographer
Name: Miron Zownir
Title: Photographer, director of photography, filmmaker, writer
Your 3 favorite projects to date:
NYC, Berlin, and Moscow are definitely my best-known photo projects, but my favorite more recent projects are probably my photos from L.A., Romania, and Istanbul.
Your most successful cooperation:
Probably my solo exhibition at the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg; my cooperation with the Bene Taschen Gallery in Cologne, Los Angeles, London, Paris, and Berlin; my participation at the El Salvaje Europeo exhibitions in Barcelona and Valencia with the likes of Paul Klee, Picasso, Albrecht Dürer, Lucas Kranach, and Goya; and the Darkside I and Darkside II exhibitions in Winterthur featuring many of the greatest photographers in the world. As for my published works, my cooperation with Gestalten (Radical Eye), Pogo Books (NYC RIP, Down And Out in Moscow, Berlin Noir) and Spector Books (Ukrainian Night).
Upcoming projects & cooperations:
I’m currently working on a photo project about Istanbul. Pogo Books is publishing my next photo book, Romania Raw, which should be printed in March. I have a solo exhibition in March/April at the Museum of Art in Cluj Napoca and another solo exhibition in May/June at the International Center of Photography in Palermo. And two group shows at the Museum of Photography in Berlin and in Konstanz.
Motto/Credo:
I don’t know if I have a motto. Maybe “Don’t sensor yourself.”
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
That’s a tough question since I’m not really involved with any scene. Jens Pepper tried to establish something with his photo chats which was quite interesting. I have seen some good exhibitions at C/O Berlin and Martin Gropius Bau, but I still have to visit the Helmut Newton Foundation and the Museum of Photography Berlin. There are a couple of good photo book stores like Bildband, and several photo galleries I have been exhibited in since 1981, and I know a couple of good photographers, like Jackie Beier.
Website:
IG account:
@mironmiron1990
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The Printer
Name: Sven Schönauer
Title: CEO
Company: recom ART
Your 3 favorite projects to date:
This is difficult to answer, as there are considerably more than three projects that I have worked on with great pleasure in my career so far. For last year, I can try to limit it to three major projects. For example, we produced several works for different photographers during Berlin Photo Week. They included Evelyn Bencicova, Thomas Kretschmann, Olaf Heine and his “Rwandan Daughters”, Thomas Höpker, and Justine Läufer. Then there was a project with Kirchner Museum Davos, for which we developed a multitouch table. We produced Thomas Billhardt’s works for various exhibitions, where we also handled digitization and image editing. We produced a work by Moritz Wegwerth as a large-format spliced inkjet print, as a product prototype for us, which is currently on view at the Philara Collection in Düsseldorf. There were many other projects with both long-standing clients and new artists. I have no preference here, but I really like the variety of projects.
Your most successful cooperation:
We have recurring projects that we enjoy working on and look forward to again and again. This includes working with GRISEBACH auction house, for which we regularly create scans of originals for their auction catalogues. We have also been cooperating with EPSON and UNICEF for several years for their Photo of the Year Award. We regularly work together with CAMERA WORK gallery and TEXTE ZUR KUNST. These connections, some of which are many years standing, are proof of the success of the work we do.
Upcoming projects & cooperations:
We are looking forward to a promising year in which existing projects and cooperations will be continued – also in the field of research on photography – but which also offers cooperations that we are not allowed to mention, at least not yet.
Motto/Credo:
I thought about that for quite a long time and then I realized that I do not have one.
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
That we are in the very middle of it.
Website:
www.recom-art.de
IG account:
recom_art
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The Photographer
Name: Olaf Heine
Title: photographer / director
4 shows / projects:
Current:
Rwandan Daughters @ Museum Frieder Burda Salon Berlin
September 6th 2019 – February 22nd 2020
Recent:
Saudade @ Chaussee36 Berlin
October 10th 2019 – November 12th 2019
Former:
Hush Hush @ Immagis Munich
April 19th 2018 – May 31st 2018
Former:
Brazil @ CWC Berlin
May 30th 2014 – July 5th 2014
Upcoming projects:
A new book of portraits (working title: White Noise) published in October 2020
Motto/Credo:
I don’t have a motto/credo. But I like this Brazilian saying: “Quem parte leva saudade” – “He who says goodbye takes longing with him.” I like that word Saudade. You can’t really translate it. It describes a deep emotional state: A touch of melancholy. A turning towards the past or towards the future. A yearning for happiness that has passed, or perhaps never even existed.
What do you love about Berlin’s photo scene?
The variety I guess….?
IG account:
@olafheinestudio
