Inka Schube

Christian Raabe

Roman Bezjak

Till Briegleb

Whereas the West encounters the now-fossilized witnesses of planned economies and socialist modernism with skepticism, Roman Bezjak (*1962 in Slovenia) takes an impartial view of communist architecture. After producing prizewinning photo essays for GEO and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, for the past five years the artist has concentrated on traveling through eastern and southeastern Europe. Bezjak used a large-format camera to take photographs of residential buildings, institutions, hotels, and palaces of culture in familiar and foreign places--from Tallinn and Tirana to Dresden and Dnipropetrovsk. His series render a kind of archaeology of postwar modernism without nostalgically glorifying the former East Bloc, for he also makes visible the exploitation of utopia and its entry into everyday life. This publication thus captures a world threatened by demolition, parts of which--such as the Palace of the Republic in Berlin--no longer exist.

Archäologie Einer Zeit

Sascha Weidner

Sascha Weidner (1974-2015) had an eye for magic moments; he knew how to capture the poetic, the fleeting on paper. Removed from the documentary, his photographs feature familiar things from completely new, unsuspected perspectives and transfer everyday life into make-believe worlds. For instance, the orange-yellow light of a streetlamp that illuminates a maple tree becomes golden rain, plumes of smoke swirl magically around cars damaged in accidents, or ruffled white sheets become cloud formations. The incidental receives special meaning, and the apparent lightness of the pictures a melancholic depth, vulnerability, and intimacy. Sascha Weidner prepared and brought this artist's book to completion in its current form during his lifetime. Nearly one hundred large-format illustrations carry the reader off into the visual world of this exceptional artist, who unfortunately died much too young.

Intermission II

On 20 November 1969 Heinrich Riebesehl goes to the premises of the 'Neue Hannoversche Presse'. He intends to take photographs in the elevator, pointing his more or less concealed camera at the people he encounters there. The situation and set-up have rigidly defined parameters: a small space whose layout is virtually square, illuminated by cool ceiling lights, and a small-format camera equipped with a wide-angle lens and cable release. The whole shoot lasts 5 hours and 35 minutes and consequently features a cross section of all the social strata in the publishing house.

Inka Schube

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