From Henri Cartier-Bresson to Charlotte March

With its works by artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Lebeck, Charlotte March, Albert Renger-Patzsch or Otto Steinert, the collection of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie (German Photographic Association, DGPh) is an important collection reflecting German and international photographic history. The variety of different perspectives used mean that C/O Berlin and the Photographische Sammlung can make use of selected examples to outline a path through the modern history of the medium. The exhibition presents a heterogeneous image of a photographic landscape that developed over decades, in which the portrayal of reality, a prerequisite specific to this medium, is reflected in various and sometimes contradictory ways. In this exhibition, C/O Berlin is presenting this variety of different thematic and historical positions in Berlin for the first time. The show will mainly comprise works by holders of the Cultural Prize, awarded annually by the DGPh since 1971, and the Dr. Erich Salomon Prize, which has been awarded since 1959. In total, the DGPh"s collection includes some 1,800 photographs. These have been held by the Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne since 1993. The photographs selected give an impressive overview of the collection as a whole.

The exhibition begins with early 20th-century artistic photography, represented by high-quality prints by Heinrich Kühn and Hugo Erfurth, and extends from the “Neue Sachlichkeit” (New Objectivity) and “Neues Sehen” (New Vision) movements of the 1920s and “30s to ““Subjective Photography”” and well-known images created in photojournalism and industrial photography. Harold Edgerton‘s Shooting The Apple, created in 1964 with the stroboscopic flash he invented, represents colour photography and is also an icon of scientific photography.