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November 11 - December 23, 2007
Names and No-Names in Photo History (part one)
When more than a 150 years ago photography was born, a new language was born, allowing us to create a new form of visual communication.
This language is not limited to certain territories, as much as anybody, who likes to suppress information, would wish that - it is a universal language and a huge amount of visual messages is flooding our world and makes us believe we are part of everything that happens, as long as we're willing
to look at those images.
From the beginning photographers tried to cover every aspect of our life. The results became a major part of our culture and are a large contribution to our collective memory. All themes and subjects having been covered before through painting and drawing are being interpreted and partially reinvented by this new media again, as the boundaries of what to be shown public and not are being pushed constantly to new limits - yet in almost any country censorship of different grades is still an issue.
The constant flow of new developments in technology has been and is offering almost unlimited possibilities to express a creative idea and make photography highly attractive to more and more artists. As a result photography started developing its own distinctive role in art.
And yet - it took more then 100 years before photography slowly became accepted as an art form as well. Today it is part of any reputable art institution and artists use it as a challenging discipline, which offers a huge potential to experiment with - and interaction between the different disciplines is common.
Collectors are willing to pay huge amounts for iconic results of this discipline at auctions and nobody doubts anymore the importance of photographs within a museum's collection.
The exhibition at the OMC Gallery reflects a variety of positions in photography, covering almost
150 years. Some images are icons in Photo History, while others, despite their quality, never made it into the public awareness.
Rather than the fame of the photographer (although it also includes e.g.: Henri Cartier-Bresson (FR), Josef Sudek (CZ), Felice Beato (IT), Leopold Hugo (USA), Cecil Beaton (UK), William Claxton (US), Alberto Korda (CU), Horace Bristol (US), Manuel Alvarez Bravo (MX), George Richmond Hoxie (US), Paul Heisman (USA), Horace Roye (UK), Harold L. Harvey (US), Philippe Halsman (US), George Hurrell (US), A.L. Schaefer (US), Horst P. Horst (DE), Krister Stroemholm (SE), Rouben Samberg (US), Ben Heller (US), Carl van Vechten (US), Julian Mandel (FR), Josef Vetrovsky (CZ), the visual ideas of the images, their documentary value, their visual impact, their statement about a certain period or last, but not least their quality as a piece of art have been important for the selection.
The reception for the exhibition will be held on Sunday November 11th, 2007 from 2 - 6 PM.
Rolf Goellnitz will give an introduction about the presented work and explain, why it is fun to collect photography and how to start a photo collection.
For the reception OMC is proud to welcome a very special guest
from the world of photography:
Mr. Alan Griffiths
Mr. Griffiths has created the www.luminous-lint.com website as a cooperative Internet resource for collectors and connoisseurs of fine photography and will give a presentation and inside information about this project.
"It is not how a single person feels about the subject but how a community of like-minded enthusiasts can work together to create an expanding and highly linked encyclopedia for all. It is accepted that not everything will be perfect but the entire site evolves with hundreds, if not thousands, of changes a day. In less than two years we have included details on over 5,700 photographers, almost 24,000 images and in excess of 280 online photography exhibitions. All those interested in photography can join in and this includes photo-historians, curators, gallery owners, photographers and collectors and this provides diverse perspectives on a subject we all love. So join in when you are ready - you will be most welcome."
Alan Griffiths, Los Angeles, October 2007 |
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