Dirk Alvermann (photographer)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dirk Alvermann (born October 24, 1937 in Düsseldorf ; † September 3, 2013 in Carlow-Neschow ) was a German photographer , filmmaker and writer .

Life

Alvermann began photography in 1956. In the period of the reconstruction of the Federal Republic and the German economic miracle, however, there was hardly any room for the socially critical, anti-colonialist and peace policy view of his work in West Germany. With the exception of a few left-wing weekly newspapers such as Die Tat , Deutsche Volkszeitung or Die Andere Zeitung , he published his pictures mainly in the GDR as well as in France, Algeria, England, Italy and Poland. In quick succession photo reports were made about Spain (1957–62), Algeria (1958–60), Albania (1962), West Germany (1962–65), Italy (1964) and England (1965).

The work of these years is documented primarily in the illustrated books "Algerien-L'Algerie" (1960) and "No Experiments - Images for the Basic Law" (1961). A planned illustrated book about Spain, which Edition Leipzig had planned for 1963, was not allowed to appear due to the objection of the Spanish Communist Party in Exile. In addition, there were the documentaries "Algerian Partisans" (1962) and the camera work at Peter Nestler's "Workers' Club in Sheffield" (broadcast title: "People in Sheffield") in 1965. From 1962 to 1965 Alvermann worked as a freelancer for the NBI , but also published in Quick , Magnum and Das Magazin .

After long and repeated stays in Algeria and Spain, Alvermann moved to West Berlin in 1959 and finally to East Berlin (GDR) in 1966. In 1969, his photo documentation "Wolfgang Heinz stages Gorky's enemies " and in the same year the narrative illustrated book about the people who shudder in Rostock's overseas port "A handful of luck" appeared here. The following year the city portrait “Rostock” followed and in 1979 the almost legendary photo book “I love you”. The project of an illustrated book about the work and life of Polish folk artists (wood carvers and painters), which was pursued for many years (1962–77) together with the Warsaw ARD correspondent Ludwig Zimmerer, was not realized.

Between 1972 and 1976 Alvermann worked as a documentary film director for the television of the GDR for the "Kulturmagazin". When GDR television was closed down during German reunification, almost all of the films made there under his direction (without a trace to this day) were disposed of.

Alvermann has been devoting himself more and more to literary work since the 1960s and published a. a. In 1977 the partly autobiographical volume of stories, the end of a fairy tale, and in 1983 the children's book Cotton Candy and Ferris Wheel . In 1979, Alvermann's was published as a preliminary photographic final balance and probably best known photo book Ich liebe Dich alongside the Algeria book . A year later he was accepted into the GDR Writers' Association and elected to the district executive as a representative of young authors. As its delegate, he traveled with Rainer Kerndl the following year to a congress of the Palestinian Writers' Union in Beirut , which, however, did not take place due to the extremely escalating military tensions there at the time. It was here that his last closed photographic works were created in Palestinian refugee camps. In 1982 Alvermann resigned from the district board of the writers' association at his own request, moved to the (then) district of Schwerin, where he was accepted into an agricultural production cooperative (LPG), an experience that he processed literarily in 1999 in the Crivitzer Chronicle .

In 1991 Alvermann got a job as archivist for the Rehna town archive . In the following year he was one of the founders of the Maurine-Radegast e. V., was elected its 1st chairman and published several local history publications on her behalf, such as writings by the Low German poet Rudolf Hartmann who was murdered in the concentration camp ( Ick seig all kinds of faces ), explorations by the local chronicles Klaus Bollensdorf ( Rehnaer miniatures ) and Karl-Heinz Molkenthin ( Demerner Dorfgeschichten , Land an der Maurine ), post-war photos by the photo reporter Willy Seeger ( Gadebusch novella ) and two anthologies of short stories by contemporary North German writers ( Message in a Bottle from Northeast , Message in a Bottle 2005 ).

In 2006 and 2008 he designed the illustrated books Between the Times - Rhapsody in Black and White and dacapo, a retrospective of the works he created between 1956 and 1982. The photo books Klein Paris followed in 2011 with post-war impressions of his native Düsseldorf as well as facsimile reprints and new editions in French, English and German of the now legendary Algeria book on the liberation struggle of the French colony until 1962. Alvermann's book-making activity continued in 2012 in Streiflichter 1956–65 , an illustrated book of short photographic stories about Warsaw , Tirana , Naples , Peñíscola and Sheffield .

Dirk Alvermann was a younger brother of the painter , graphic artist and object artist Hans Peter Alvermann (1931-2006). He left behind his sons Dirk Alvermann , Moritz P. Alvermann and his daughter Nadja Alvermann.

Exhibitions

  • 1958: international photokina, Cologne, three large-format pictures from Spain
  • 1983: Am Volkspark, Gadebusch, "preliminary final balance"
  • 1992: Düsseldorfer Bank, Düsseldorf, photo story "Radschläger"
  • 2008: Galerie argus fotokunst, Berlin, photographs "Between Times"
  • 2011: Galerie Les Yeux Ouverts, Arles, "Les Almandes"
  • 2012: Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, "Photo reports 1956–65"
  • 2012: Argus fotokunst gallery, Berlin, "Streiflichter 1956–65"

Collections

Publications

photography

  • Algeria L'Algerie (1960 Rütten & Loening Berlin)
  • No experiments (1961 Eulenspiegel Verlag Berlin)
  • A handful of luck (1969 Hinstorff Verlag Rostock)
  • Feinde - Wolfgang Heinz stages Gorki (1969 Henschel Verlag Berlin)
  • Rostock (1970 Hinstorff Verlag Rostock)
  • I love you (1979 Hinstorff Verlag Rostock)
  • Between the Times (2006 Edition Obotrit Schwerin)
  • dacapo - photographs by Dirk Alvermann (2008 KETTLER, Bönen) ISBN 978-3-941100-22-0
  • Algeria L'Algerie (2010 reprint STEIDL, Göttingen - in THE PROTEST BOX by Martin Parr )
  • Klein Paris (2011 STEIDL, Göttingen) ISBN 978-3-86930-348-2
  • Algeria, L'Algerie, Algeria (2011 English, French, and German-language new edition STEIDL, Göttingen)
  • Streiflichter 1956–65 (2012 STEIDL, Göttingen)

documentary

  • 1962: Algerian Partisans (Leipzig Documentary Film Week)
  • 1965: People of Sheffield (Camera, SWF)
  • 1970: da capo (GDR television)
  • 1973: Fighting Dove (GDR television)
  • 1974: Atelier 74 - 4-part series (GDR television)
  • 1975: Having fun with Goethe (GDR television)
  • 1975: Hornets (GDR television)
  • 1976: The large studio (television in the GDR)

prose

  • End of a fairy tale 21 invented stories (1977 Hinstorff Verlag Rostock)
  • Ferris wheel and cotton candy (1983 children's book publisher Berlin)
  • Crivitzer Chronicle (1999 Maurine-Radegast Rehna)
  • Assumptions of a slow worm on the edge of the playground (2007 Maurine-Radegast Rehna) ISBN 978-3-00-020924-6

literature

  • Christoph Danelzik-Brüggemann (ed.): Dirk Alvermann - Photo reports 1956–1965 . Catalog City Museum Düsseldorf . Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2018, 224 pages, ISBN 978-3-7700-6005-4 .
  • Jan Kostka: Tell about the move. The project Der Deserteur by Dirk Alvermann . In: Margrid Bircken and Andreas Degen (eds.): Reizland DDR. Interpretations and self-interpretations of literary West-East migration. V&R unipress, Göttingen 2015, pp. 263–298. ISBN 978-3-8471-0255-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ imdb
personal data
SURNAME Alvermann, Dirk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer, filmmaker and author
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH 3rd September 2013
Place of death Carlow-Neschow