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After the release of Henrik Verning’s book Berlin – Die Stadt und die Beute in 2008 I asked him if he would like to exhibit some of his photographs at FENSTER61. He exhibited some new work there in 2009 and some of the pictures are now part of his new publication Sampler.01/Berlin:Crash. Verning shows a collection of photographs with hard contrasts in grainy black and white. A wild mixture of steet impressions, close-ups, portraits, animals and night visions that drag you through a dark, rough and blurry version of the city.

The magazine is planned to be published as a limited edition of 100 on a regular basis. Here’s a video on vimeo that gives an impression about the first issue.

There’s been a lot of talk about Andreas Gursky recently because of the price that one of his photographs achieved at some auction in (was it?) London. And of course there’s the usual “is this still photography!? and Is that photograph really worth 4 millions?” debate going on… As far as I know, Gursky considers himself an artist, not a photographer, so much of the debate is obsolete anyway. I think it’s nice if someone spends 4 millions for a photograph. Why not? Just imagine what nonsense is usually bought with such an amout of money. Yachts, palaces, big cars, weapons… So I think it’s really nice to imagine that someone prefers a photo instead.

There’s a really nice and humorous feature about the Gursky World from the early 2000s. At the end of it, Gursky explains the making of “Rhein II”, that is now the most expensive photograph in the word.

For those who missed the show in Berlin:

“I didn’t wait for somebody to give me a job –  I went and created a job.”
A slideshow + the original voice of Weegee “The Famous”, the New York city freelance news photographer from the 1930s to the 1950s – here on youtube.com

There’s another fine photographer documentary on arte: Anders Petersen.

There’s a beautiful new documentary about Bruce Davidson on the arte Website.

Some of the screenings that were shown at the Seconds2Real event at exp12 Gallery in February are now online on vimeo. This video was shown as an intro to the evening and contains photographs from all Seconds2Real members as well as some thoughts about what the term “street photography” means to us.

There are more and more documentaries about German photographers from the former GDR. I just found this nice one about Arno Fischer on the pages of Kunst-und Ausstellungshalle Bonn and there will be a new movie about Harald Hauswald in the cinemas called Zwischen Liebe und Zorn [Between Love and Anger]. Premiere next thursday, Feb 24, at Babylon Mitte, Berlin. I think I should go there, it’s only five minutes to walk…

Mein Leben – Die Fotografin Sibylle Bergemann is now online on the webpages of arte.tv in a German and French version. It’s a very intimate documentary with Sybille Bergemann talking about her career in photography, working for fashion magazines in the GdR, her husband Arno Fischer, the legendary appartment at Schiffsbauer Damm, the founding of Ostkreuz and about living with cancer. Sybille Bergemann died a view days before the movie pemiere at the cinema Babylon in November last year.

There’s a beautiful collection of extracts from the documentation “Everybody Street” about street photography in New York listed on the blog of The New Yorker including Bruce Davidson, Mary Ellen Mark, Bruce Gilden and Joel Meyerowitz.

Marc Thümmler’s extraordinary photo movie “Radfahrer” that combines Harald Hauswald’s photographs from the GDR with Stasi transcripts about him is now available on DVD for only € 7,-. Subtitles in English, Spanish and French plus a 30 Minutes interview. Highly recommended. The interview is also online on vimeo.

There’s a new video on aaschool.ac.uk of Grandmaster Stephen Shore holding his lecture Photography and the Limits of Representation in London this October. Take your time – it’s 90 minutes only!

… no comment is necessary for this, just enjoy: “Double Take”, memoir (in words and pictures) by Kevin Michael Connolly.