(Mis) Understanding Photography. Eine andere Geschichte der Fotografie

Background information

"In 1974, Nina Hagen complained that her boyfriend had forgotten about color film. At the same time, conceptual artists were putting photography on the dissecting table to analyze its aspects - the popular, the social, the technical and the artistic. This volume tells a wild and ironic, at times melancholy, story of photography from the artists' point of view, unraveling close to the photographic material, but also looking at the desires and obsessions that people associate with photography. The thematic image chapters with works from the last 50 years deal with the development of the material conditions of the medium, obsolete formats such as photo album or postcard, but also with the new digital world of photography. Today, Nina Hagen would hardly have to regret the absence of color; rather, she might complain about images posted online without being asked.

Content

Chapters:

• 1. meditations on the material of photography2. social rituals, individuals and Sunday pictures
  3. manifestos
  4. models, afterimages and icons
  5. the evidence of documents and the obsession of collecting

Additional information

"What is photography? Does it mean the print, an object or a JPEG on your screen? Does it only exist when you print it out? Does it only count if it is a large file, a TIFF? Or does photography mean the snapshot on your phone or a slide projection, or rather the image you have in mind before you press the shutter button? Does it mean that great picture you couldn't take because your film was full or the camera was jammed or because you simply didn't have it with you? To make a long story short: Is photography an object or an image, or is photography a way of seeing?" (Zoe LEONARD)
Since its invention 175 years ago, artists have repeatedly questioned photography: starting from the omnipresence of photographic images, they have created works and texts that deal with different aspects of photography: its materiality and popularity, its journalistic power, and its claim to objectivity.Today, with the increasing disappearance of the analog and the triumph of the digital, these works take on a whole new relevance. The exhibition tells a wild and ironic, sometimes melancholic story of photography.
A second part of the exhibition is devoted to manifestos by photographers; after all, the most radical statements about photography come from the image authors themselves. Among them are programmatic statements by László Moholy-Nagy, August Sander, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Martha Rosler, and Germaine Krull. The avant-gardes of the 20th century were accompanied by journalistic drumbeats: groundbreaking books, magazines, and radio broadcasts that called for the world to be perceived anew through the medium and for it to be changed. Translated into space with elaborate scenography, the manifestos are complemented by photographic incunabula of their authors.

"...Today we are experiencing the evolution of Homo sapiens into Homo photographicus: a large part of our knowledge comes from images, which also format our consciousness. In the age of 'Homo photographicus', photography becomes a means of thinking about reality.
Its purpose is therefore beyond personal expression or documentary intentions. Images are no longer simply representations of the world, but rather become the world..." writes photographer and artist Joan FONTCUBERTA for the reader accompanying the exhibition (Mis)Understanding Photography at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, shedding light on the contemporary significance of this ubiquitous medium.
Numerous other artists have their say in the extensive reader, and in their examination of the material of photography, its origins and models, its meanings and rituals, they tell a history of photography all their own." (Steidl Verlag)
The volume '(Mis)Understanding Photography. Another History of Photography' by Florian Ebner contains works by Tacita DEAN, Alfredo JAAR, Sherrie LEVINE, Santu MOFOKENG, Ugo MULAS, Barbara PROBST, Sigmar POLKE, Timm RAUTERT, Thomas RUFF, Pavel Maria SMEJKAL, Larry SULTAN and Mike MANDEL, Clare STRAND, Wolfgang TILLMANS, Axel TÖPFER, Timm ULLRICHS, Gillian WEARING, Christopher WILLIAMS and others." (© Steidl Verlag, 2014)

About the photographers and photo artists, represented in the exhibition

a. with their works:

• Claudia ANGELMAIER, Michael BADURA, Sylvia BALLHAUSE, Laura BIELAU, Viktoria BINSCHTOK, Kristleifur BJÖRNSSON, Bernhard BLUME, Christian BOLTANSKI, Günter Karl BOSE, Johannes BRUS, Michel CAMPEAU, Sarah CHARLESWORTH, Jojakim CORTIS & Adrian SONDEREGGER, Tacita DEAN, Bogomir Ecker, Hans EIJKELBOOM, Hans-Peter FELDMANN, Joan FONTCUBERTA, Florian FREIER, Katharina GAENSSLER, Jochen GERZ, G. R.A.M., Aneta GRZESZYKOWSKA, Jeff GUESS, Rudolf HERZ, John HILLIARD, Alfredo JAAR, Kenneth JOSEPHSON, Erik KESSELS, Jochen LEMPERT, Zoe LEONARD, Les LEVINE, Zbigniew LIBERA, Stanislaw MARKOWSKI, Santu MOFOKENG, Ugo MULAS, Andreas MÜLLER-POHLE, Renate HEYNE & Floris M. NEUSÜSS, Peter PILLER, Steven PIPPIN, Richard PRINCE, Barbara PROBST, Arnulf RAINER, Timm RAUTERT, Benjamin RINNER, Józef ROBAKOWSKI, Thomas RUFF, Ed RUSCHA, Adrian SAUER, Joachim SCHMID, Pavel Maria SMEJKAL, Michael SNOW, Clare STRAND, Larry SULTAN & Mike MANDEL, Vibeke TANDBERG, Ulrich TILLMANN & Wolfgang VOLLMER, Wolfgang TILLMANS, Axel TÖPFER, Timm ULRICHS, Franco VACCARI, Matthias WÄHNER, Gillian WEARING, Jan WENZEL, Christopher WILLIAMS, Akram ZAATARI.

b. with their manifests:

• Shahidul Alam, ANT!FOTO/Katja STUKE & Oliver SIEBER, Nobuyoshi ARAKI, Keith Arnatt, Mel Bochner, Victor Burgin, Henri CARTIER-BRESSON, Louis Jacues Mandé DAGUERRE, Louis Darget, Eugenio Dittborn, Hossam el-Hamalawy, Peter Henry EMERSON, Group f/64, Francis FRITH, Luigi GHIRRI, Raoul HAUSMANN, John HEARTFIELD, Mishka HENNER, Rudolf Herz, Lewis W. HINE, Thomas Hirschhorn, Edwin Hoernle, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Martin Kippenberger, Oscar Krifka, Germaine KRULL, Heiner Kurzbein, Dorothea LANGE, Sherrie LEVINE, Jerzy Lewczynski, Lomographische Gesellschaft, Man RAY, F.T. Marinetti / Tato, Chris Marker, Renzo Martens, Peter McKenzie, Lucia MOHOLY, László MOHOLY-NAGY, Johannes Molzahn, Daido MORIYAMA, Maurice Vidal Portman, Albert RENGER-PATZSCH, Alexander RODTSCHENKO, Martha Rosler, August SANDER, Joachim SCHMID, Allan SEKULA, Jo Spence / Terry Dennett, Otto STEINERT, Hito STEYERL, Alfred STIEGLITZ, Paul STRAND, William Henry Fox TALBOT, Karel TEIGE, Raoul Ubac, Timm ULRICHS, Johan van der KEUKEN, Ai Weiwei, Minor WHITE.

Photo books of the photographers and photo artists represented with their works

• ANGELMAIER, Claudia
  ARAKI, Nobuyoshi
  ARNATT, Keith
  BADURA, Michael
  BALLHAUSE, Sylvia
  BIELAU, Laura
  BINSCHTOK, Viktoria
  BLUME, Bernhard
  BOLTANSKI, Christian
  BOSE, Günter Karl
  BRUS, Johannes
  CAMPEAU, Michel
  CARTIER-BRESSON, Henri
  CHARLESWORTH, Sarah
  DEAN, Tacita
  EIJKELBOOM, Hans
  EMERSON, Petr Henry
  FELDMANN, Hans-Peter
  FONTCUBERTA, Joan
  GERZ, Jochen
  GHIRRI, Luigi
  HAUSMANN, Raoul
  HEARTFIELD, John
  HILLIARD, John
  HINE, Lewis W.
  JAAR, Alfredo
  JOSEPHSON, Kenneth
  KESSELS, Erik
  KEUKEN, Johan van der
  KRULL, Germaine
  LANGE, Dorothea
  LEMPERT, Jochen
  LEONARD, Zoe
  LEVINE, Sherrie
  MANDEL, Mike
  MAN RAY
  MOFOKENG, Santu
  MOHOLY, Lucia
  MOHOLY-NAGY, László
  MORIYAMA, Daido
  MÜLLER-POHLE, Andreas
  MULAS, Ugo
  NEUSÜSS, Floris M.
  PILLER, Peter
  PRINCE, Richard
  PROBST, Barbara
  RAUTERT, Timm
  RENGER-PATZSCH, Albert
  RODTSCHENKO, Alexander
  RUFF, Thomas
  RUSCHA, Ed
  SANDER, August
  SAUER, Adrian
  SCHMID, Joachim
  SEKULA, Alan
  SIEBER, Oliver
  SMEIKAL, Pavel Maria
  SULTAN, Larry und Mike MANDEL
  STEINERT, Otto
  STIEGLITZ, Alfred
  STRAND, Clare
  STRAND, Paul
  STUKE, Katja
  TALBOT, Henry William Fox
  TEIGE, Karel
  TILLMANS, Wolfgang
  TÖPFER, Axel
  ULLRICHS, Timm
  WEARING, Gillian
  WHITE, Minor
  WILLIAMS, Christopher