Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler
18 April - 27 June
Vernissage 18 April 6.30pm
UPCOMING
Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler
Kleinstadt
18 April - 27 June 2024
Vernissage: 18 April
Artist talk & book signing: 25 April 7pm. Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler in conversation with Linn Schröder (German). Free
An empty square in a small town: almost devoid of people, and those who are there are either very old or very young. There are no sights to see, only empty storefronts, slow decay, and—if you’re lucky—a touch of morbid charm. It is the kind of place that you only come to by chance, and you are compelled to ask yourself: Who is here when I am not here—and why?
According to the definition of the Imperial Office of Statistics in 1887, which is valid in Germany to this day, a small town (Kleinstadt in German) has between five and twenty thousand inhabitants. Ute and Werner Mahler chose to investigate the demographic phenomenon of small towns in their fourth collaboration following Monalisen der Vorstädte (Mona Lisas of the Suburbs), completed in 2010; Wo die Welt zu Ende war (Where the World Ended), completed in 2012; and seltsame Tage (Strange Days), completed in 2014. Starting in 2012 they traveled around Germany in a small car with a large camera and a supply of black-and-white sheet film in search of images that document the atmosphere, attitude, and spirit of these places.
Their concise images freeze time and place, capturing the idea of a small town in a kaleidoscope of images from many small cities, ranging from Bad Gandersheim to Lebach and Zörbig. The future of such small towns will be decided in the next few years. Young people are the future; if they leave, small towns will die.
PAST
Rut Blees Luxemburg
The Essence of Architecture
07 March - 11 April 2024
Vernissage: 07 March 7pm
Artist talk: Rut Blees Luxemburg and Tobias Zielony in conversation 08 March 7pm
What is this? This is the essence of architecture, revealed to the eye of a gentle donkey. In an unlucky strike – it is all the photographer’s fault – the eye morphs into a glaringly dead pupil reproduced on a cigarette box. But why is this the essence of architecture? Because the architect pulls himself together and makes it pile up. She places layer upon layer, creates a solid column that will carry the building, stand on its own or in a row with other columns. At the same time, she lets go, allows it all to spread out in a stony cataract. The essence of architecture is the sphincter. But why is the essence of architecture revealed to the eye of a donkey? Because the donkey, unburdened and receptive, willing to capture and be captured, crosses the yard with elegance and alacrity. Its image vanishes into the concrete surface of a tiny memorial. Shit happens. The stable collapses. Will the zinc-coated watering can be used for a shower in the golden night? Alexander García Düttmann
Rut Blees Luxemburg’s work as an artist and photographer concerns the representation of the city and the phenomenon of the urban, combining formats from large-scale photographic work. She is a Senior Research Fellow and Reader in Urban Aesthetics at the Royal College of Art in London
Rut Blees Luxemburg studied Political Science in Duisburg, Germany, before attending the London College of Printing to complete her BA in Photography in 1993. She graduated with an MA in Photography from the University of Westminster in 1996.
Her first monograph, London – A Modern Project, appeared in 1997 and included an essay by Michael Bracewell; it was followed by Liebeslied/My Suicides, with text by Alexander Garcia Düttmann in 2000. In 2004, the photobook, ffolly, with texts by Cerith Wyn Evans, Patrick Lynch, Douglas Park, was published by ffotoworks. The most comprehensive monograph on her work, Commonsensual, was published by Black Dog in 2009 and includes a critical essay by Regis Durand. In 2012, the Museum Simeonstift in Trier, Germany held a survey show of her work, Lustgarten.
Recent projects include: Silver Forest (2016) an architectural installation on the western façade of Westminster City Hall; and London Dust (2011–13) a series of photographs and a film that trace the rapid architectural transformation of the City of London in relation to the development of CGI photographic representation. She created the iconic cover for the The Streets’ Original Pirate Material.
Prints for sale: info@hamburgwerkstattfotografie.com
Gallery open: Friday- Saturday 1-6 pm, and by appointment
Bertien van Manen
Let’s sit down before we go
14 December - 13 February 2024
Finissage: 06 February 7pm
"I have to like the people I photograph. I need to feel an attraction, a fascination."
— Bertien van Manen
Buried deep in Bertien van Manen's images is an intimacy between photographer and subject. The viewer trespasses on the private moments in the frame, catching a glare over breakfast, unheard words between friends, both party to the action and intruding on it.
Between 1991 and 2009 van Manen travelled across Asia and Eastern Europe with a small, analogue camera, learning the local language and engaging with the people who would become the subject of this collection.
Let's sit down before we go is a portrait of the places van Manen visited and the people she met, stayed with and became friends with during her travels across Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Siberia, Tatarstan and Uzbekistan.
Across nearly two decades, with the exception of big cities, little about the scenery in van Manen's photographs has changed. The relative sameness of Russia's appearance binds the images together, leaving us no indication of the time lapse from one photograph to another.
The title, Let's sit down before we go, represents an old Russian tradition, the practice of taking a moment, stopping to think before embarking on a journey, to consider where we will be travelling to and why.
The internationally renowned Dutch photographer Bertien van Manen (*1942, The Hague, Netherlands) is regarded as one of the renovators of documentary photography. She started her career as a fashion photographer, after having studied French and German languages and literature. Inspired by Robert Frank’s “The Americans” she travelled around, photographing what she saw. She had her first exhibition at the “Photographers Gallery” in London in 1977. She uses an inexpensive snapshot camera to take photos of people she meets, as she feels that this camera allows her subjects to consider her “as a tourist or friend, who likes to take pictures”. She has photographed extensively in China, the Appalachian Mountains in the USA and the former Soviet Union. Her work has been exhibited by all major photography institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Fotomuseum Winterthur and it is found in major collections, both public and private.
Prints for sale: edition of 10 + 2AP
GALLERY OPEN: THURSDAY- SATURDAY / 1-6 PM, AND BY APPOINTMENT: INFO@HAMBURGWERKSTSTTFOTOGRAFIE.COM
JH Engström
From Back Home & Sketch of Paris
19 October - 08 December 2023
Vernissage: 19 October 7pm
Maybe you can’t really go back home.
But this is where I’m from.
These images pay hommage,
to the people and landscapes that are my origins.
I’ve returned to something my body and emotions recognize. JH Engström
From Back Home and Sketch of Paris are two bodies of work that firmly represent the duality of place for Swedish photographer, JH Engström (b.1969), who has, from an early age lived in Paris and the countryside of Varmland, and has consistently documented his urban and rural existence and the people, landscape and things that make an intuitive reference to his emotional being
From Back Home was a collaboration with Anders Petersen and was published in 2009. It was awarded the prestigious book prize by Les Recontres d’Arles. The work comprises a multifarious collection of coloured and black and white portraits, landscapes, still-lives, close-ups and aerial shots. The images are united by a sense of spontaneity, an ephemeral tone that lends them an air of tenderness. These are works of intimacy and loss, exploring questions of time, memory and the possibility of return.
Sketch of Paris is a collection of photographs. For more than 20 years JH Engström has spent time living and working in Paris, a city that, like New York, has a long photographic pedigree; countless photographers have been inspired by its iconic architecture and busy streets. "Sketch of Paris," however, is hardly a catalog of classic Parisian scenes, offering instead a raw yet lyrical portrayal of the artist's misadventures, loves and random encounters in its streets, bars and artist lofts--an entirely personal Paris. Drawing more from Nan Goldin and Anders Peters than Atget or Henri Cartier-Bresson, Engström brings us on a gritty, no-holds-barred guided tour of life in his adopted city. Sketch of Paris comprises of colour and black-and-white photographs--self-portraits, nudes, portraits of lovers, friends, strangers and the occasional street scene--all shot between 1991 and 2012, tracing a critical time during the development of the artist's own voice and vision. The book was published in 2013 by Aperture/Max Ström.
‘Twenty years of photos taken in Paris and, thankfully, nary a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower. Engstrom's photos are more about the unseen Paris. Scary, tough, smoking-cigarettes-and-partying-hard Paris. This book is a sensory overload of full-bleed photos, mixing black and white with color effortlessly. It's a diary of a life lived very, very . . . interestingly’
Amy Kellner, The New York Times Magazine.
JH Engstrom has had many solo shows including one at The Finnish Museum of Photography (Helsinki, Finland, 2018), at the Värmlands Museum (Sweden, 2017 and 2009); Hôtel Fontfreyde, Clermont-Ferrand (France, 2016); FOAM Amsterdam (Netherland, 2014); National Media Museum, Bradford (United Kingdom, 2010) or at the Hasselblad Center, Gothenburg (Sweden, 2005). His photographs have joined the collections of the Fotomuseum Winterthur (Winterthur, Switzerland); the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (USA); the Moderna Museet in Stockholm (Sweden) or again the Musée Nicéphore Nièpce (Chalon-sur-Saône, France). He has authored many publications, including Shelter (1997); Trying to Dance (Journal, 2003); Haunts (Steidl, 2005); CDG/JHE (Steidl, 2008); Foreign Affair (Super Labo, 2011); La Résidence (Journal, 2009); From Back Home (Max Ström, 2009); Sketch of Paris (Aperture, 2013); Långt Från Stockholm (Aron Mörel, 2013), Ende und Anfang, Early Trips (André Frère Éditions, 2013); Tout va bien (Aperture, 2015); Revoir (Akio Nagasawa Publishing / Journal, 2017); Crash (Akio Nagasawa Publishing, 2018); and four films and video installations: Här/Ici/Here (shortfilm, 5 mn., JH Engström, 2017); The Words (simultaneous screenings, 6h., 2017); Bertil and Maggan : a documentary (28 mn, Jenny Örnborn, Story, 2006); A film about/with Anders Petersen (52 mn, JH Engström, 2006); He is the recipient of international prizes and grants including the Leica Oskar Barnack Prize (Tout Va Bien, 2015); the Golden Letter (La Résidence, 2012); the Rencontre d’Arles photobook prize (From Back Home, with Anders Petersen, 2009); he was shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photographic Prize (Trying to Dance, 2005) and received a grant from the Andrea Frank Foundation (1998). He is the winner of the Photographic Book of the year in Sweden (with Shelter, 1998).
Prints for sale: edition of 10 + 2AP
Artist talk: 20 October 7pm
GALLERY OPEN: WEDNESDAY- SATURDAY / 1-6 PM, AND BY APPOINTMENT: INFO@HAMBURGWERKSTSTTFOTOGRAFIE.COM
Michael Grieve
Procession
14 September-11 October 2023
Vernissage: 14 September 7pm
Procession is a meandering process that follows an invisible subject along the trajectory of the ancient road called Iera Odos, stretching 18km from Athens to Elifsina. Procession is a search for meaning by physical effort, with the foot bearing the weight and firmly on the ground, treading across the periphery of a varied urban terrain tangled up with fragments of nature. This is not a tale of two cities but rather the space in-between. An equivalence of opposing elements.
Michael Grieve is a British photographer who has lived in Athens for the past 6 years. His work is a visual and psychological investigation of an inner and outer place, trying to understand the contradictions of the phenomena of what is ‘there’ and the multiple and fluid shifts of meaning in the urban landscape.
Michael Grieve is the director of Hamburg Werkstatt Fotografie (HWF), ArtFotoMode and lecturer at Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin. In 1997 he graduated with an MA in Photographic Studies from the University of Westminster and then proceeded to work as a photojournalist and portrait photographer for publications internationally, and represented by Agence VU in Paris. He was the deputy editor of 1000 Words Contemporary Photography Magazine and a writer for the British Journal of Photography. Since 2011 he has been a senior lecturer at Nottingham Trent University in the UK, Akademia Fotografie in Poland, the University of Art and Design in Berlin, and currently teaches at Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin. He is the director of HWF, a space for education/exhibitions/events in Hamburg. He is currently working on Procession, a photographic project documenting the peripheral space between Athens and Elifsina in Greece.
Prints for sale: edition of 10 + 2AP
100cm x 80cm archival fine art inkjet prints
Artist talk: 21 September 7pm
GALLERY OPEN: WEDNESDAY- SATURDAY / 1-6 PM, AND BY APPOINTMENT: INFO@HAMBURGWERKSTSTTFOTOGRAFIE.COM
Anders Petersen
Café Lehmitz
24 May-09 September 2023
As a young man, after his studies with Christer Stromholm, in the late 1960’s, Anders Petersen photographed an extraordinary portal into the world of late night drinking regulars, escaping the hard life, in the Café Lehmitz bar on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. The honesty and intimacy with which Anders Petersen was able to photograph his subjects paved the way for a ‘personal documentary’ genre, emphasising a subjective relationship to lived experience. Within the confines of four walls, Anders Petersen captured the life of these people and his connection to them with photographs so raw, we are nearly there, in the smoked filled Café Lehmitz.
The exhibition is a celebration of this seminal body of work, published in 1978. We will be presenting vintage prints, made by Anders Petersen in his Stockholm darkroom in 1977.
Vernissage 24 May 7pm / Artist will be present
Editioned prints by the artist are for sale. Analogue gelatin-silver prints 30x40
Contact: Michael Grieve/Director
Gallery is closed for the summer until 06 September
Private appointments: info@hamburgwerkstattfotografie.com