Images of the Present

in THE GÄLLERY - Space for Photography

The Documentary Photography Awards are the most important awards of their kind in Germany. They are aimed at photographers who deal with real-life subjects and explore the representational function of photography using contemporary means. Since 1994, the prize has been awarded every two years by the Wüstenrot Foundation in cooperation with the Museum Folkwang in Essen to graduates of universities in Germany. To mark its 30th anniversary, THE GÄLLERY is presenting a representative overview of three decades of documentary photography in Germany for the first time.

"Images of the Present" traces the development of documentary concepts since the early 1990s using selected works by the award winners. In the exhibition, the chapters "Relationship Networks of Portraiture", "Society in Motion" and "Political Landscapes" present three important thematic areas around which some of the work groups of the 56 award winners to date revolve. The thematic grouping of the works not only shows different approaches to the themes. Changing image strategies, artistic attitudes and media translations from framed pictures to multimedia installations also become visible. In addition, the works of the documentary photography sponsorship awards challenge us to compare what we have photographed with the media images we see every day and to question our own perspective on the present.

With works by Andrea Diefenbach, Ulrich Gebert, Kirill Golovchenko, Susanne Hefti, Verena Jaekel, Christian Kasners, Jens Klein, Sara-Lena Maierhofer, Paula Markert, Nicola Meitzner, Maziar Moradi, Arne Schmitt, Julia Sörgel, Andrzej Steinbach, Albrecht Tübke, Malte Wandel and Tobias Zielony.

The free exhibition catalogs have been reprinted and are now available to take away from the exhibition!

Free admission

Free admission is made possible by the Wüstenrot Foundation.