Background information

The only-German-language catalog volume 'Progress as a Promise. Industrial Photography in Divided Germany' accompanies the exhibition of the same name currently taking place at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin.
The medium of photography, itself an achievement of industrialization, has accompanied companies and businesses since the 1860s and has shaped its own canon of images. The catalog volume and exhibition present photographic works commissioned by West German companies and East German businesses between 1949 and 1990. For the first time, these impressive photographs are shown in the context of their contemporary use: in diversely designed print media of the steel, chemical, textile and automotive industries. In doing so, the exhibition focuses on the ideas associated with the historical image sources and makes visible the differences and similarities in the representations of progress - and thus the promise of a better life - in East and West." (© German Historical Museum)
"Dramatically lit production halls, boiling steel, broad smiles on soot-smeared faces - behind these virtually iconic motifs of industrial photography lies the powerful narrative of boom and progress. From the depiction of economic potency to the image of a new future

Content

For the first time, the catalog volume & exhibition systematically examine the visual language of commissioned industrial photography in the two systems of divided Germany - capitalism and socialism - for differences and similarities in the representation of progress and show how photography and its contextualization convey these narratives of upswing. Profiled photo historians will shed light on how the concept of progress was negotiated at different times and how it has changed. Vorsprung durch Technik' - industry was long a source of identity for Germany. With de-industrialization and the limits of growth, the question of the future of the genre of industrial photography also arises." (© Hatje Cantz, 2023)

Additional information

The catalog volume 'Progress as Promise. Industrial Photography in Divided Germany' was edited by Stefanie R. Dietzel and Carola Jüllig, with texts by Stefanie R. Dietzel, Thomas Dupke, Stefanie Grebe, Annette Schuhmann, Steffen Siegel, Friedrich Tietjen. The catalog volume was designed by Peter Nils DORÉN.

About the works presented in the catalog volume 'Fortschritt als Versprechen. Industrial Photography in Divided Germany' with their works.

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Photobooks of the photographers represented in the catalog volume 'Fortschritt als Versprechen. Industrial Photography in Divided Germany' with their works.