The photographs of Christian Schulz show us West-Berlin in the eighties, in all its variety. With its special status, the then island of West-Berlin was seen by many as a space of freedom, and it became a destination for a new international and wild bohème. At the same time it remained a symbolic place, whose mere existence carried a political message.
Christian Schulz photographed happenings, people and the city for the Tageszeitung and Zitty. He focused as well on capturing the everyday life as well as the street life with pictures of festivals, concerts, films and theatre performances. His portraits focus on the individual and in most of his pictures there is an underlying political sense.
We see concerts by Atonal, IDEAL, Didaktische Einheit, Rio Reiser, Rolling Stones and Malaria in places, which became legendary in the meantime, like SO36 or Tempodrom and personalities of Berlin like Rosa von Praunheim, Rattenjenny, Juppi (impresario of the UFA factory), Annette Humpe (singer of the band IDEAL), Dagmar Stenschke, Günther Thews and Holger Klotzbach of the band Die 3 Tornados, Marianne Enzensberger and Lotti Huber.
There are also personal portraits of Berlinale actors and film personalities. Schulz catched with a personal look Penelope Cruz, Elia Kazan, Michelangelo Antonioni, Emmanuelle Béart, Claude Sautet, Dani Levy, Maria Schrader, Henri Alekan, Jane Russell, Jeanne Moreau, Hal Roach, Johnny Depp, Jane Birkin or Wim Wenders. They are not portrayed as inaccessible actors and personalities but as tangent and touching individual. These qualities were very appreciated by those portrayed and it is no coincidence that Christian Schulz worked as a photographer for the films of Christian Petzold.
We also see political events and demonstrations like the Tuwat in 1981, or the demonstration for disarmament and peace on the occasion of the visit to Berlin of Reagan in 1982; Willy Brand in the city hall in Schöneberg, the demonstration on Alexanderplatz on November 5th, 1989, or the opening of the Berlin Wall at Checkpoint Charlie on November 9th, 1989.
In the book Die wilden Achtziger – Fotografien aus West-Berlin, author Arno Widmann writes: “These are photographs of society in transition that ended with the reunification. West-Berlin was a child of the wall, a curled up and wounded son of the Cold War… As a photographer Christian Schulz also represent one of the transitional moments, between the instants and the poses.”
Christian Schulz, West-Berlin 1981-1989
February 24 – May 26, 2017
Collection Regard
Steinstraße 12
10119 Berlin
Germany
https://www.collectionregard.de/
Book:
Christian Schulz, “Die wilden Achtziger. Fotografien aus West-Berlin”
Published by Lehmstedt Verlag
24,90€
