Spotlight Fotokultur – April 2025

Contents

Welcome to "Spotlight Photo Culture".

With this new online section, we, the editors of c't Fotografie, would like to digitally expand our magazine section "Spotlight – from the art and culture scene" and bring you fresh impulses from the world of photography and art online once a month. Because photography is more than technology, it is art, expression and contemporary document at the same time.

What can you expect here? In this section, we highlight current exhibitions, photographic trends, outstanding art projects and important cultural news. We introduce you to inspiring photographers, report on photographic news and discourse or take a look at interesting events. This way, you will always be up to date when it comes to art and culture in photography.

Why online? The world of photography is constantly evolving and we want to be more flexible and up-to-date. We look forward to looking back at the events in the world of photography at the end of each month and providing an outlook for the coming four weeks.

Your editorial team of c't-Fotografie

FREELENS – The founders

Until April 30, 2025, the FREELENS Gallery in Hamburg is presenting the exhibition "FREELENS – The Founders". The new exhibition honors the 30th anniversary of FREELENS e. V., the largest professional association of professional photographers and photojournalists in Germany. The exhibition shows the impressive range of the founding members' photographic work and reflects their practice of photojournalism, which hardly exists today and which deals intensively with its subject.

The exhibited works range from photo reportages from the early days of FREELENS in the 1990s, which appeared in renowned magazines such as Stern, Zeit Magazin, and GEO and reached a large mass audience. They also include artistic-documentary works from the more recent past.

Numerous highlights can be seen in the exhibition. Particularly noteworthy are the works of Peter Bialobrzeski, who embarked on a road trip through the USA for ZEITmagazin in the 1990s, following in the footsteps of the American writer Jack Kerouac. His analogue images from the road show an America of highways, petrol stations, diners and fleeting encounters that seems familiar to the viewer because it is also reminiscent of the New Color Photography of the 1970s.

Stefan Warter serves a different photographic genre. He was a sought-after sports photographer and supplied the major magazines with exclusive images from the global Formula 1 circus. His pictures of Michael Schumacher and other Formula 1 drivers are impressive not only because of their colorfulness – the Ferrari red is very present - but also because of the intimate look behind the scenes.

Finally, the pictures by Ute and Werner Mahler, who as GDR photographers are among the formative figures of the German photography scene, are also inspiring. After reunification, they founded the Ostkreuz photo agency with other photographers. In the exhibition, the Mahlers show black and white photographs that were still taken in the GDR, but are very similar in concept to the photojournalism of FREELENS. Ute Mahler, for example, shows pictures from her home village of Berka in Thuringia, which depict village life in the provinces with its monotony and remoteness. Werner Mahler, on the other hand, focuses on the miners in the coal mines of the GDR. He shows the people underground in finely observed pictures that bring the viewer closer to the coal environment and the hard work in a quiet but direct way.

Overall, the FREELENS exhibition offers the visitor a great photographic variety that is not too overloaded and is pleasant to follow. It also wonderfully shows the change from commissioned photography to artistic photo documentation. The exhibition is complemented by a lively supporting program with panel discussions and artist talks that shed light on the history and future of FREELENS.

Moments that linger

From April 3 to May 4, 2025, the Galerie für Fotografie (GAF) in Hanover is showing the exhibition "Verweilter Augenblick" with works by photographer, publisher and critic Hansgert Lambers. Lambers, who was born in Hanover in 1937 and died in Berlin in June 2024, was primarily known for his black and white photography.

The exhibition shows works from seven decades that Lambers took in cities such as Barcelona, Berlin, London, Ostrava, Paris and Prague. His photographs are characterized by a humanistic and curious interest in people, capturing moments of happiness, eroticism, sadness and hardship.

Although Lambers was born in Hanover, he has remained unknown to many people there, including those interested in photography. The exhibition at the GAF now offers the opportunity to discover his extensive work. The exhibition will be accompanied by a monograph published by Fotohof Verlag, Salzburg, as well as a 32-minute film portrait.

Michael Kerstgens – Out of Control

The exhibition "Out of Control" by Michael Kerstgens can be seen at the Fotografie Forum Frankfurt until May 11, 2025. In this exhibition, Kerstgens explores the socio-political changes of recent decades, which he accompanies in his long-term photographic essays. His photographs mainly show the transformation from an industrial to a consumer and leisure society.

The photographer became known for his documentation of the British miners' strike in 1984/85. His works are characterized by a clear, documentary character and a socio-critical perspective. The exhibition at the Fotografie Forum thus offers a comprehensive insight into Kerstgen's work and shows the viewer the changes in our living environments.

Visionary of photography: L. Fritz Gruber

Almost 75 years ago, L. Fritz Gruber founded the German Photographic Society (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie, DGPh), an institution that continues to shape photography culture to this day. On March 30, 2005, L. Fritz Gruber passed away at the age of 96 – but his legacy lives on. Since 1945, he had the idea of promoting photography as a serious art form and social medium. On April 18, 1951, he put his vision into practice: In Cologne, with the support of the then Mayor of Cologne, Robert Görlinger, he brought together important personalities from business, culture and politics to found the DGPh. The DGPh set new standards for the recognition of photography and today has around 1,200 members.

Gruber's work for the "Photokina Picture Shows" (1950–1980), which he developed as an artistic counterpart to the technical Photokina trade fair, was particularly influential. He brought international greats such as Man Ray, Edward Steichen and Erich Salomon to Cologne and turned the city into a center of the photography scene. In addition to his work as a curator, Gruber was a passionate collector and publicist who set standards with his photo books. Even today, the DGPh stands for his legacy: to preserve and further develop photography in all its facets.

(vat)