Die Photographische Sammlung

Karl Blossfeldt and Jim Dine: Poetry of Plants

Karl Blossfeldt and Jim Dine: Poetry of Plants

Nature continually beguiles us with its wonders – the proliferating vegetation with myriad plant species and forms, their spatial disposition, the light that plays across them and the overall effect – and capturing them photographically is at the heart of the exhibition. The works on view manifest close observation and sensitive perception of flora and the verdant environment as documented…
Hugo Erfurth: A Look at the Collection

Hugo Erfurth: A Look at the Collection

Most of the portraits that survive from the studio of Hugo Erfurth (1874–1948) hark back in style to the era of art photography. This artistically motivated photographic approach, also known as Pictorialism, flourished at the end of the 19th century until around 1914. The photographers aimed to create exquisitely designed compositions, which were further refined using special manual and technical…
August Sander: Masterworks – Photographs from “People of the 20th Century”

August Sander: Masterworks – Photographs from “People of the 20th Century”

The current exhibition, featuring over 150 original photographs and numerous documents shown in display cases, presents a representative cross-section of the “People of the 20th Century” project. The portraits from August Sander’s epochal work are not only of fundamental importance for the history of photography; they are also highly exciting objects of study – masterpieces for anyone who has an…
Emil Otto Hoppé: Unveiling a Secret

Emil Otto Hoppé: Unveiling a Secret

The focus of the two new exhibitions at Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur is industrial photography with its various contexts of origin, its formal-aesthetic positing, and its content-related implications. Emil Otto Hoppé (*1878 in Munich) – his name is often abbreviated as “E. O. Hoppé” – was a prominent portrait photographer of the early 20th century. He also gained a…
Bernd & Hilla Becher: Framework Houses in Siegen’s Industrial Region

Bernd & Hilla Becher: Framework Houses in Siegen’s Industrial Region

Bernd and Hilla Becher (1931–2007, 1934–2015) began taking photographs of framework houses in Siegen’s industrial region early on in their artistic career. Produced between 1958 and 1974, this body of work proved the value of the consistent depiction of a type of object in so-called typologies. Analysis and synthesis were not to be accomplished solely in a precise individual image…
August Sander – A view of the collection: Westerwald. Portraits and Landscapes

August Sander – A view of the collection: Westerwald. Portraits and Landscapes

Soon after August Sander (1876-1964) set up his studio in Cologne-Lindenthal in 1910, he found himself drawn again and again to the nearby Westerwald region. Sander photographed many families there over four decades, producing remarkable group and individual portraits as well as characteristic views of the landscape. The works on view in the exhibition convey an impression of this special…