blog61.com

Tonight – all infos here and here.

There’s a new blog with lots of photobook reviews in German on kasselerfotobuchblog.de.

The relaunch of FENSTER61′s website is online. Almost 70 exhibitions are in the archive by now, all about Berlin. It seems it became a real fine survey of different photographic views on the city. The new FENSTER61 blog wants to keep you update about acitivities of photographers who showed their work at FENSTER61. Feel free to add it to your blogrolls.

The Genius of Photography

A BBC documentary about the history of photography and its genres like reportage, street photography, portraiture and finally its invasion to the art world. Six episodes, each about one hour. I think there’s no better conclusion of the subject matter with a more prominent list of protagonists so far. Subtitles in English only. Produced in 2007.The whole work is online on youtube, the DVD is available at British amazon and elsewhere.

Zeitgenössische Fotografie in Amerika

Michael Engler’s documentary was originally produced for German television in 1982. Features conversations with photographers like Garry Winogrand, Lisette Model, Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, Duane Michals, Joel Meyerowitz and more. 52 min. German only, no subtitles. Available directly from the author.

Contacts

A series from TV station arte, originally initiated by William Klein. Photographers talking about their contact sheets. At least some of the photographers talking about their contact sheets. The more popular and the more „arty“ they get the less they show contacts but talk about their work in general. Highlights (in my opinion) are Josef Koudelka, Elliott Erwitt, William Klein, Raymond Depardon which are all on the first DVD of the 3 DVD pack. Subtitles in English and French (on my copy at least – there should be an „international“ version out by now and the three DVDs are available separately in some countries).

Radfahrer

An absolutely outstanding documentary about German photographer Harald Hauswald by filmmaker Marc Thümmler that shows his photographs from the former GdR in the 80s along with readings of Stasi transcripts about him. And – that’s it. Nothing but still photographs and those off-text-readings of the Secret Service reports of the GdR. Works perfect. Disturbing and funny at the same time. The DVD also contains half an hour interview footage with Hauswald. Running time of both, film and interview is about one hour. The DVD ist available for € 7 only at the Bundesamt für Politische Bildung. Subtitles in English, Spanish, French and German.

Somewhere to disappear

Still not released as a DVD but I saw the movie at the cinema. A stunning roadtrip with Alec Soth producing his Broken Manual poject. I’m not shure what impresses me more – the photographer or his protagonists. Website of the film is here.

Please free to add your recommendations below.

Frank Silberbach’s Berliner panorama street photographs finally have their own website. It features a vast archive of all 213 pictures published as a weekly column in Berliner Zeitung over the period of more than four years as well as newer photographs that were taken in the last couple of years. Take your time and enjoy.

Just in time for christmas: our friends from emerge-mag.com have their first book ready for subscription. It covers 276 pages with 26 reportages from German photographres Christian Pankratz, Gesche Jäger, Daniel Pilar, Anne Lass, Nicole Strasser, Lene Münch, Mareike Günsche, Jan Windszus, Frederic Lezmi, Anikka Bauer, Tine Casper, Daniel Etter, Mischa Christen, Kirill Golovchenko, Hannes Jung, Heinrich Völkel, Jan Brandes, Gordon Welters, Florian Manz, Judith Stenneken, Rebecca Sampson, Jonas Ludwig Walter, Andy Spyra, Dawin Meckel, Anna-Kristina Bauer and Felix Seuffert. The preview pages look promising.

Some more photographic documents from Bavaria and other German areas: a beautiful series by Andreas Weinand called Deutsche Volksfeste.

Gundula Schulze Eldowy’s exhibition Die Frühen Jahre / The early Years at c/o Berlin is opening tonight at 7pm. There’ll be several series shown from her latest books Berlin in einer Hundenacht and Der große und der kleine Schritt. Read reviews in German here and here.

Update: review on Spiegel Online.

Seconds2Real’s Mario Cuic has compiled a new photo series which was taken mostly in Munic. They seem to be just a little bit different down there…

Sven Marquardt, Peter Franck, Matthias Gephart and Sebastian Klug are exhibiting in the lively Prenzlauer Berger gallery Neon Chocolate from today until Dec. 15th. The photographers claim to present a world apart from ever-present glossy-photography in a wide range from Marquardt’s well known b/w portraits to Klug’s cell phone nightlife shots. Check out their trailer and details about the show and opening tonight here.

Kickoff for the weekend: the Berliner photo school Neue Schule Für Fotografie presents its first group exhibition with works of the lectureres Thomas Anschütz, Eva Bertram, Bertram Kober, Bodo Müller, Eva Maria Ocherbauer, Arne Reinhardt and Marc Volk. Opening tonight at 7 pm.

Finally… Germany’s photo magazine Photonews is running a blog.

Hamburg based photographer Petra Herbert did a lovely photo project in Pforzheim, the city she lived until she turned 18. This series was a special discovery for me as I grew up near Pforzheim in Southern Germany and lived in town for a few year at the beginning of my 20s . Check an interview (in German) and photographs from her artist book “What we’ve got is Gold” on the pages of SZ Magazin online.

Deeply impressive: W. Eugene Smith‘s Retrospective at Martin Gropius Bau that was shown for the last time yesterday in Berlin. The exhibition showed several complete reportages in different rooms and a little bit of miscellanious work at the end. Contact sheets and the comparison of different prints evidenced how hard he manipulated his pictures sometimes to get those dark and strong results. Nearly every photograph is cropped in one way or another and every picuture seems to have its very own aspect ratio.

„I think the web has turned photographs into caricatures. You look at them quickly, gain the easiest visual features, then move on. What I wonder is how much that’s shaping the actual image making, if people are making simpler images just because those are the ones easiest to digest in a small jpg.“

Blake Andrews in a conversation with Bryan Formals worth reading on his blog.