The same name (by marriage), same profession (photographer), same training (Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, Leipzig), same nationality (German) and born only a few months apart, in 1949 and 1950, respectively, Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler grew up in Germany under Soviet occupation. In 1990 in Berlin, after the reunification, they and and five other photographers founded the photo agency Ostkreuz, which would later become the school for photography “Ostkreuzshule”.
As photographers, Ute and Werner have worked separately for the past forty years. Their photographs are being exhibited together for the first time for a shared retrospective exhibition at the Haus der Fotografie in Hamburg’s Deichtorhallen and a book published by Kehrer.
From commissioned portraits to fashion and personal work, the series on display are varied and numerous, perhaps too much so. Two of them are remarkable both literally and figuratively: for the first time in their careers, the Mahlers have produced a series together.
Die seltsamen Tage (“Strange Days”) is a work begun in 2010 in the regions of Brandenburg, Thuringia and Lower Saxony in Germany. These full-page color photographs open and close the book. For the exhibition in Hamburg, large-format prints were made, the largest of format on display. The photographs are landscapes and interiors, “Stills,” like contemporary still lifes. In these static and surprising scenes, plantlife merges with human and animal presences. These captivating images should be observed in silence.
Portraits from the series Monalisen der Vorstädte (“Suburban Mona Lisas”) are among Ute and Werner Mahler’s most well known series. Here human presence is ubiquitous, shown frontally in black-and-white. The photographers met with young women living on the outskirts of major European cities in the 2000s: Berlin, Reykjavik, Florence, Minsk and Liverpool. Their faces exude a timeless and immortal character that is not easy to locate geographically or temporally. Their eyes are gentle, persistent, disturbing and endearing.
BOOK
Ute Mahler und Werner Mahler – Werkschau
Kehrer Verlag 2014
Editor: Brigitte Woischnik, Ingo Taubhorn
Artists: Ute und Werner Mahler
Designed by Detlev Pusch
Hardcover, 22,5 x 28 cm, 302 pages inclusive 3 altar folds, 38 pages supplement , 208 color and b/w-ills.
German/English
ISBN 978-3-86828-499-7
Price 58,00€
EXHIBITIONS
« Ute Mahler und Werner Mahler – Werkschau »
11.04. – 06.07.2014
Haus der Photographie in den Deichtorhallen
Deichtorstraße 1
2
20095 Hamburg
Germany
http://www.deichtorhallen.de
« Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler – Die seltsamen Tage »
24.05. – 12.07.2014
Robert Morat Galerie
Kleine Reichenstraße 1 (Reichenhof)
20457 Hamburg
Germany
http://www.robertmorat.de
