UNTERWEGS MIT MARGA KINGLER. PRES­SE­FO­TO­GRA­FIN IM RUHRGEBIET

Press photographer Marga Kingler (1931- 2016) enjoys a legendary reputation as the grande dame of local journalism in Essen and the Ruhr region. Around 160 images from her estate, which is kept in the Ruhr Museum's photo archive, are being presented for the first time in an exhibition at the Ruhr Museum in the coal washing plant at the Zollverein UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Marga Kingler's lively way of dealing with her subjects has shaped her unique visual language. From 1951 to 1991, she worked for the local Essen editorial office of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. Over four decades, she created a lively portrait of urban life in the region and its people.

THE BACKGROUND

The well-known photojournalist Marga Kingler took photographs for the most important newspaper in the Ruhr region, the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, from 1951 to 1991. For four decades, she captured important national and, above all, local events with her camera and thus played a decisive role in shaping the visual perception of this period.

The Ruhr Museum, which is in possession of Marga Kingler's photographic estate with over 150,000 negatives, is now offering insights into the life's work and the working world of the legendary photographer for the first time. At the same time, this is the first time that only press photographs have been presented in an exhibition at the Ruhr Museum. "There has never before been an exhibition that provides an overview of the entire oeuvre of Marga Kingler, a photographer known not only for her long creative career but also for the quality of her images," says Ruhr Museum Director Prof. Heinrich Theodor Grütter. "In addition, the exhibition once again provides a new insight into the Ruhr Museum's immense and growing photo archive with over four million photographs," continues Prof. Grütter.

The Ruhr Museum began a series on classics of Ruhr area photography in 2010 with Heinrich Hauser's "Schwarzes Revier", which continued with "Chargesheimer. The Discovery of the Ruhr" (2014/15), "Erich Grisar. Ruhr Area Photographs 1928 - 1933" (2016) and "Josef Stoffels. Steinkohlenzechen - Fotografien aus dem Ruhrgebiet" (2018) and finally continued with "Albert Renger-Patzsch. Die Ruhrgebietsfotografien" (2018/19) was the culmination and provisional conclusion.

"On the road with Marga Kingler. Press Photographer in the Ruhr" now expands the spectrum of photography from the Ruhr region both thematically and formally and shows the immense breadth and diversity of the Ruhr Museum's photographiccollection. In addition, the new special exhibition underlines the importance of photography in the Ruhr region and especially in Essen, where several renowned institutions such as the Museum Folkwang, the Krupp Historical Archive, the Folkwang University of the Arts and the Ruhr Museum have joined forces to form the Center for Photography Essen.

THE EXHIBITION

The gallery exhibition shows over 250 photographs taken during Marga Kingler's 40 years as a photojournalist for the local section of Essen's WAZ newspaper. At the center of the exhibition are 42 photographs of local and national events from 1951 to 1991 under the title 40 Years of Contemporary History. The photographs reflect the social changes of the post-war period, the years of the economic miracle, the times of protest in the Federal Republic up to the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification. Some of Marga Kingler's press photographs are of supra-regional significance and tell the story of the Federal Republic of Germany. These include important events in contemporary history, such as the severe storm surge in Hamburg, the state visit of then US President John F. Kennedy to Cologne and the Rhine-Ruhr Easter March. These images pay tribute to the historical significance of Marga Kingler's photographic testimony.

The chapter Local Moments shows photographs taken in everyday local journalistic life. From politics to schools, culture, sport and business to social events. They take visitors along to the appointments and motifs of a local press photographer: pictures of accidents, police and fire department operations or the events surrounding local politics have a hard news core. Trade fairs, product presentations and sales are also included from the city's economic life. The life of urban society is presented in clubs, at fairs, carnival parades, cultural events and annual festivals such as Christmas and Easter. There are recurring themes in which Marga Kingler used a formal language that is typical of local press photography: cheques being handed over, politicians shaking hands or contracts being signed.

Marga Kingler also photographed extensive series of pictures, of which only a few were printed in the newspaper. Four of her reportages from different years, which appeared in the WAZ sections "Aus dem Westen", "Bunte Blätter" and in the local section, were selected for the exhibition and newly compiled with partly unpublished motifs.

With biographical images and a never-before-seen interview film, a comprehensive picture of Marga Kingler's diverse press work and a panorama of four decades of Ruhr area history has been created. "The photographs on display bring back to life a long-gone world that only exists in our memories. At the same time, some of the photographs on display are strangely familiar to us because they have been repeatedly printed in historical anthologies and presentations, in photo books and exhibitions, but also in retrospectives in the WAZ or other Funke Mediengruppe newspapers and have acquired an iconic character, as it were, not only for Essen's city history. It is no coincidence that certain of Kingler's photographs are among the most sought-after in the Ruhr Museum's photo archive," says Prof. Heinrich Theodor Grütter.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Marga Kingler enjoys a legendary reputation as a press photographer in Essen and the Ruhr region. She worked for the WAZ for 40 years - first as a photo lab assistant and very soon as a press photographer for the Essen local news. She managed to assert herself in a male-dominated professional world. Stefanie Grebe, Head of the Photographic Collection at the Ruhr Museum, emphasizes this: "Marga Kingler is a unique example of a photographer who held her own in the male-dominated press photography sector from the post-war period for 40 years in the local editorial department of the WAZ and made a name for herself."

The photographer had very good communication skills and was perceived as extremely lively. Contemporary witnesses describe her as an impressive personality, self-confident, assertive, skilled in dealing with people, occasionally sharp-tongued, charming and always elegantly dressed, well made up and coiffed. These personality traits defined her entire career and found their way into the way she photographed. She showed herself to be active and strong in staging, intervening courageously in the scene to be photographed and constructing a picture within the tight corset of the schedule - usually with the enthusiastic participation of those involved.

In the course of her working life, Marga Kingler photographed subjects and events from all areas of society. Her photographs were mainly published in the local section, but also in other sections such as "Sport", "Bunte Blätter", "Reisen", "Kultur", the reportage page "Aus dem Westen" or on front pages. Although Marga Kingler's editorial schedule dictated what she had to photograph, she increasingly managed to occupy her own fields of interest. These included culture and fashion, sport, atmospheric images and city life. She always had her eye on people and their everyday lives.