"German photographer Joachim SCHUMACHER has been dealing with the urban landscape of his own living space for 40 years.
With the illustrated book 'Das Gebiet' (engl.: The Territory) is the first artistic monograph before, which includes his b/w photographs from 1976-1994; since 2000, he photographed only in color.
Prof. Dr. Christoph Schaden's epilogue describes SCHUMACHER's photographic style as 'poetic realism'. In doing so, he avoided the mythologizing of the Ruhr area, which first emerged in the 'post-montane' era, which he accompanied photographically.
SCHUMACHER's works contribute rather to the demythologization, they describe soberly, analytically, but not without empathy the transition into the 'normalization'.
The photographer does not want to understand his work as an isolated consideration of a Ruhr area problem; He also sees them as metaphors for the sometimes grotesque effects of the economic-pragmatic thinking of an industrial society on the design of our environment.
In this respect, his complete works also have their validity beyond 'the area'.
The photo book 'Das Gebiet' was edited by Gerhard Kurtz, who also owes the concept as well as the selection and sequence of the pictures." (© Joachim SCHUMACHER)
"Joachim SCHUMACHER studied photography at the Essen Folkwangschule in the 1970s, with Otto STEINERT.
Already during his studies, he developed a factual, documentary presentation, which was very different from the journalistic style of his teacher and moved him to the proximity of the American photographers, who were known at that time under the label 'New Topographics'.
The focal point of SCHUMACHER's work is his own living space: the Ruhrgebiet with all its facets enables the photographer to work intensively on his subjects and to observe their further development. Above all, the immense dimension of human intervention in the landscape and the drama of this era of change and upheaval is what SCHUMACHER was interested in and fascinates to this day.
The photographs shown in the photo book 'Das Gebiet' are not just historical evidence of the structural change in an industrial landscape. They are photographs designed with passion and precision that direct attention to surprising details without losing sight of the big picture." (© Kettler Verlag, 2014)
With the illustrated book 'Das Gebiet' (engl.: The Territory) is the first artistic monograph before, which includes his b/w photographs from 1976-1994; since 2000, he photographed only in color.
Prof. Dr. Christoph Schaden's epilogue describes SCHUMACHER's photographic style as 'poetic realism'. In doing so, he avoided the mythologizing of the Ruhr area, which first emerged in the 'post-montane' era, which he accompanied photographically.
SCHUMACHER's works contribute rather to the demythologization, they describe soberly, analytically, but not without empathy the transition into the 'normalization'.
The photographer does not want to understand his work as an isolated consideration of a Ruhr area problem; He also sees them as metaphors for the sometimes grotesque effects of the economic-pragmatic thinking of an industrial society on the design of our environment.
In this respect, his complete works also have their validity beyond 'the area'.
The photo book 'Das Gebiet' was edited by Gerhard Kurtz, who also owes the concept as well as the selection and sequence of the pictures." (© Joachim SCHUMACHER)
"Joachim SCHUMACHER studied photography at the Essen Folkwangschule in the 1970s, with Otto STEINERT.
Already during his studies, he developed a factual, documentary presentation, which was very different from the journalistic style of his teacher and moved him to the proximity of the American photographers, who were known at that time under the label 'New Topographics'.
The focal point of SCHUMACHER's work is his own living space: the Ruhrgebiet with all its facets enables the photographer to work intensively on his subjects and to observe their further development. Above all, the immense dimension of human intervention in the landscape and the drama of this era of change and upheaval is what SCHUMACHER was interested in and fascinates to this day.
The photographs shown in the photo book 'Das Gebiet' are not just historical evidence of the structural change in an industrial landscape. They are photographs designed with passion and precision that direct attention to surprising details without losing sight of the big picture." (© Kettler Verlag, 2014)
- Ed(s)/Author(s)
- Gerhard Kurtz
- Format
- Linen bound HC (no dust jacket, as issued), 27 x 22 x 2 cm., 136 pp., 76 b/w ills., bilingual texts: German / English