Christian Borchert

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Self-portrait of the photographer Christian Borchert with camera, 1970/1980, SLUB Dresden / Deutsche Fotothek

Christian Borchert (born February 1, 1942 in Dresden ; † July 15, 2000 in Berlin in a swimming accident) was a German photographer.

Life

Borchert grew up as the son of a saddler in a tenement house on Rückertstrasse in Dresden- Trachenberge . After graduating from EOS Pestalozzi , he studied copier technology at the engineering school for film technology in Potsdam-Babelsberg . This was followed by jobs as a quality engineer and administrative employee in Wolfen , Babelsberg and Berlin. Borchert completed his training as a photographer in 1967. From 1970 he worked for five years as a photo reporter for Neue Berliner Illustrierte . On the side, he completed a distance learning course in photography from 1971 to 1974 at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst in Leipzig. From 1975 he worked as a freelance photographer. Borchert was friends with Uwe Steinberg .

plant

In 1954, Borchert received a Rheinmetall Perfekta , a bakelite amateur camera, with a 6x6 format. In his first recordings one can already see thematic systematizations, for example churches or bridges. In 1983, Borchert said in a conversation with Heinz Czechowski that he understood these images "as an effort to understand the city [...] as a landscape".

Reading August Sander's “People without a Mask” (published posthumously in 1971 ) awakened in him the desire “to want something of his own” and the desire to distance himself from his job and the “laughing front-page faces”. During his trip to Hungary in 1972/73, the compositions of his role model were “in mind”. Sander's influence is evident in Borchert's artist and writer portraits, for example by Heiner Müller , which “drew the attention of critics and professional colleagues to Borchert.” Borchert was enthusiastic about the wealth of detail in Paul Strand's pictures , because he found that there was only one picture that you yourself can see again and again that a good picture is.

One of Borchert's most important photo projects was the documentation of the reconstruction of the Semperoper in Dresden. Around 10,000 photos were taken in seven years. Borchert viewed this documentation as an “internal mission” and saw himself “primarily as a chronicler”. The project required constant commuting between Berlin, where he lived, and Dresden. In preparation, Borchert had looked at pictures of the undamaged opera building. Through the depicted weather situations, the photographer has shown the passage of time and the long-suffering of this work in his photos. Heinz Czechowski sees Borchert because of the objectivity in his photos in a line of continuity with the Dresden photographers Hermann Krone and Richard Peter sen.

Borchert, who often captured scenes from everyday life in the GDR in Berlin and Dresden, also made two series of family portraits that are not only interesting from a photographic point of view. The first series was made in the early 1980s and also includes portraits of unconventional families. He then portrayed the majority of the families a second time after reunification in the course of the 1990s, so that, coupled with the sparse information on the location and occupation of those depicted, it is possible to understand family biographies in the new federal states .

Borchert's way of working was very careful; so he did not keep his 35mm cameras ready to release "so that every move to a camera is worth considering". In the statements about his own work, Borchert repeatedly uses the term distance: “Distance enables clarity. But self-deception can set in when you look at something from a distance and believe as a photographer that you see more clearly. "Or:" It would be terrible if everything were fraternization; Lack of distance would mean flatness. Distance does not mean strangeness, but dignity. ”Borchert explained why the role of chronicler is so important:“ What interests me in photography is to make a message. But I want that to be fair, precise and without exaggeration and effects, just 'accordingly' so that others - now or later or in strange places - can get an idea of ​​situations and circumstances. It's photography against disappearance. "

Summing up and interpreting these statements, Czechowski writes: “His photos reveal something of the ambivalence with which he paves his way between agony and affirmation of existence. Sometimes they hint at something of the loneliness that Borchert pursues. "

Borchert's photographic and written estate is in the Saxon State Library . While these keep around 10,000 so-called working prints, the Berlinische Galerie and the Kupferstichkabinett Dresden have around 1,400 and 500 exhibition prints, respectively.

Publications

  • Semperoper Dresden - Pictures of a building landscape . With photographs by Christian Borchert. Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1985.
  • Christian Borchert: Berliner . Ex pose Verlag, West Berlin 1986.
  • Gallery North: Dresden. Pictures from documentary films 1913–1949: Exhibition Galerie Nord January 28 to March 10, 1990 . Images collected, selected and copied by Christian Borchert. Galerie Nord, Dresden 1990.
  • Christian Borchert, Peter Gehrisch : Dresden. Flight into the past: images from documentaries 1910–1949 . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1993, ISBN 3-364-00251-7 .
  • Jens Bove (Ed.): Christian Borchert. Photographs 1960–1996 . Edition Sächsische Zeitung, Dresden 2011, ISBN 978-3-938325-92-6 .
  • City Museum Dresden (Ed.): Time travel. Pictures of a city. Dresden 1954–1995 . Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1996, ISBN 3-86530-009-X (= catalog for the exhibition in the Dresden City Museum ).
  • Christian Borchert (Ed.): Victor Klemperer . A life in pictures . Construction Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-351-02399-5 .
  • Irene Runge: Very much in the family: Thoughts on a much-discussed topic . With 16 photographs by Christian Borchert. Dietz, Berlin 1985.
  • State Art Collection, Neubrandenburg (Ed.): Christian Borchert. Photographs . Staatliche Kunstsammlung Neubrandenburg, Gallery on the Horse Market, September 29–15. November 1987, Neubrandenburg 1987.
  • Galerie Mitte (Ed.): Christian Borchert. Photographs . Exhibition from February 28 to April 11, 1985, Galerie Mitte, Dresden 1985.
  • Gallery Art Collection Cottbus (Ed.): Christian Borchert: Group pictures and artist portraits . Exhibition from March 29th to June 1st, 1980 Galerie Kunstsammlung Cottbus, Cottbus 1980.
  • Joachim Walther (Ed.): "It seems to me that the guy is glazed": poets on painters . With photographs by Christian Borchert. Book publisher Der Morgen , Berlin 1978.
  • Hansgert Lambers and Jens Bove (eds.): Schattentanz . ex pose verlag Berlin and hesperus print * Verlag Dresden, 2017, ISBN 978-3-925935-77-0

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • 1980: Galeri Art Collection, Cottbus
  • 1985: Galerie Mitte, Berlin
  • 1987: State Art Collection, Neubrandenburg
  • 1996: Dresden City Museum
  • 1998: Argus fotokunst gallery, Berlin
  • 1999: Galeri Pankow, Berlin
  • 2010: Argus fotokunst gallery, Berlin
  • 2019–2020: Residenzschloss, Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. In: Semperoper Dresden. Pictures of a building landscape. VEB Verlag der Kunst, Dresden 1985, p. 251.
  2. ^ A b Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 250.
  3. ^ A b Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 261.
  4. ^ A b c Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 255.
  5. ↑ a b c d Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 260.
  6. ^ A b Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 258.
  7. ^ A b Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 259.
  8. ↑ Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 262 f.
  9. ↑ a b Detlev Lücke: Protocolist for cities and families. In: Friday . July 21, 2000.
  10. ↑ Heinz Czechowski: Living with Dresden. Notes on Christian Borchert. P. 250 f.
  11. ↑ Annett Schmerler: On Christian Borchert's estate in the SLUB's manuscript collection on photo.dresden.de
personal data
SURNAME Borchert, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 2000
Place of death Berlin