Size Matters. Größe in der Fotografie

In the organizer's words:

Everything changes when the size regulator is turned in visual worlds: Things are emphasized, taken out of context, exaggerated and reinterpreted. They move closer, become studyable, or blur before the eyes. An immense creative power, but also the possibility of manipulation, lies in the scaling of pictorial objects and formats. For the first time, an exhibition comprehensively illuminates the considerable and often subliminal change in meaning that goes hand in hand with shifts in size in photography. Works from the late 19th century to the present day raise questions about the consequences of size for the perception and handling of photographic images.

Of all media, photography is the easiest to change its scale, can easily grow into a large image on museum walls and billboards, but can also shrink to a thumbnail on a cell phone screen. It traditionally creates miniatures of the world, but can also show things in life-size and larger-than-life size and make the invisible visible.
The exhibition fans out the theme of photographic proportions along the lines of contrasts: Historical and contemporary attempts to control proportions in the image are juxtaposed with deliberate games of confusion with scale. Formats of image reception in public space are contrasted with those of intimate viewing. Scaling in the service of function is distinguished from scaling as an aesthetic tool through which a document can become a work of art. Enlargements as a means of scientific knowledge are contrasted with enlargements that go so far as to blur objects before the eyes. And individual small JPGs are placed next to unmanageable masses of images, the so-called "poor image" next to big data. Size in photography has many consequences. It is precisely through its dimensional mobility, as the show demonstrates, that the medium acquires power in cultural, social and political contexts.

The exhibition, curated by Linda Conze, is based on the Kunstpalast collection, with national and international loans complementing the selection of works.