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Summary:
After the wall between East and West Germany was destroyed in 1989, the rapid political reunification of the country was greeted with euphoria. However, psychological and cultural reunification has proved to be a much slower and more difficult process. Michael Schmidt, a lifelong Berlin resident, approaches that anxious process in part by reflecting on Germany’s past.(...)
Michael Schmidt: Ein heit (u-ni-ty)
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Summary:
After the wall between East and West Germany was destroyed in 1989, the rapid political reunification of the country was greeted with euphoria. However, psychological and cultural reunification has proved to be a much slower and more difficult process. Michael Schmidt, a lifelong Berlin resident, approaches that anxious process in part by reflecting on Germany’s past. About half of the works are Schmidt’s own photographs; the remainder are photographs he made from other photographs culled from newspapers, magazines, propaganda pamphlets, and other such sources. The meanings of historical monuments and political symbols, of particular gestures and facial expressions and styles of clothing, are left open to interpretation. Each viewer is challenged to judge whether a given image represents East or West Germany, a villain or a victim, a moment in 1935, 1965, or 1995. This project merges two artistic traditions, treating photography both as a medium for describing personal experience and as a vast, impersonal resource created by the mass media. The book explores the emotional weight of history, the power of ideological symbols, and the relationship of the individual to the body politic.
Photography monographs
Waffenruhe
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Summary:
Schmidt uses atmosphere-laden details with high-contrast black-and-white images of cityscapes, details in nature, and portraits in 'Waffenruhe' to create a subjective, leaden picture of a still-divided city. He no longer deploys the techniques of pure documentation, but brings together surprising combinations of images to express a generation's dystopian sense of life(...)
Waffenruhe
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$54.00
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Summary:
Schmidt uses atmosphere-laden details with high-contrast black-and-white images of cityscapes, details in nature, and portraits in 'Waffenruhe' to create a subjective, leaden picture of a still-divided city. He no longer deploys the techniques of pure documentation, but brings together surprising combinations of images to express a generation's dystopian sense of life shortly before the fall of the Wall. The first edition, published in 1987 by the Berlin-based Dirk Nishen Verlag quickly sold out and continues to fetch high prices on the antiquarian book market. Thirty years later, 'Waffenruhe' is now being reprinted. This artist's book - often included on lists of the most influential photographic books of all time - is once again being made available.
Photography monographs