| Object photography in Neue Sammlung
Object photography in Neue Sammlung
The world of images has pushed the world of objects into the background. Day in day out we are confronted with a mass of photographic reproductions giant advertisements are dominating public spaces more and more. Information about the products themselves is of less importance than the conveying of emotional messages.
These objects exist nonetheless. And wherever objects that have been shaped and designed are stored is where their image and what they represent in cultural terms is in its rightful setting as an independent medium that relates the history of design and arts and crafts in photographic works.
Photography has played a pivotal role at the Neue Sammlung for as long as it has existed initially as part of the exhibition architecture. The two pioneering exhibitions "Neue amerikanische Baukunst" (new American architecture) in 1926 and "Das Licht im Dienste der Werbung" (light at the service of advertising) in 1928, for example, are based first and foremost on photographic material. Indebted from the outset to the inter-disciplinary concept of the Werkbund movement, the museum primarily followed the avant-garde tendencies of "New Photography", as well as the bold perspectives and provoking motifs of "New Viewing" of the 1920s. In doing so the image of objects changed completely. Moreover, these new aesthetic premises merged more or less unobserved with commercial product and advertising photography, which even today not infrequently feeds on this type of early impetus. The borders were fluid just as, in principle, they should be for a long time independent artistic creativity and professional commissions were in no way considered to be incompatible opposites.
Similar to 19th century arts and crafts museums which amassed documentary photos as a sort of collection of role models for industry and craftsmen, over the course of time the Neue Sammlung also built up an extensive collection of photographs of objects that were intended to serve as a chronicle. These included genuine gems of contemporary specialist photography, which were later added to the photographic collection.
The photo collection proper did not, however, take shape until the 1960s. A host of exhibitions subsequently demonstrated the museum's position with regard to this field of design. In 1954 for example it showed works from the Bayerische Staatslehranstalt fόr Photographie (the Bavarian State Academy of Photography), in 1956 "photograms" by Heinrich Heidersberger and works by Herbert Bayer, in 1962 "Photo-Graphik", in 1967 the first show of works by Bernd and Hilla Becher entitled "Industriebauten" (industrial buildings). The 1970s followed with presentations by Robert Hδusser, Herbert List, Raoul Hausmann and American landscape photographers. In between, numerous exhibitions employed the element of conveying by means of photography for example in architecture. In the spirit of the Werkbund program this type of photography was deemed to be a design profession, and it was thus less important whether the photographs were landscapes, portraits, or industrial and specialist shots.
Since that time the structure of the collection has changed decisively. Today it focuses primarily on outstanding examples of architecture, object and product photography, as evidenced by the Hans Finsler, Klaus Kinold and Andreas Feininger retrospectives. The collection now includes important complexes by Willi Moegle, Peter Keetman, Julius Shulman, Anton Stankowski, Herbert List, Walker Evans, Heinrich Heidersberger, Gabriele Basilico, Tom Vack, Aldo Ballo, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Ruth Hallensleben, Wolfgang Siol, and Christian Coigny, to mention just a few, as well as early classic representatives of object photography such as Hans Finsler, Piet Zwart, Anton and Franz Lazi, and Herbert Bayer through to Albert Renger-Patzsch. Some of these photographers may well have become famous in other creative domains. Nonetheless, the capturing of objects is a fundamental part of their oeuvre.
For this reason Neue Sammlung is dedicated to photography that "puts in the right light" objects, everyday gadgets and explicitly to a form of photography that can be described as "design with light". 20th century object photography can be positioned between an experimental and documentary approach. Within these two poles it has reproduced objects in the most exciting photographic form. It is precisely this chapter in the history of photography that Neue Sammlung opens up and investigates. |
