Dirk Gebhardt

Dirk Gebhardt (* 1969 in Cologne ) is a German photographer , journalist and university lecturer .

Life

Gebhardt grew up in his native city of Cologne. From 1993 to 1995 he first studied graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and after graduating he moved to the design department of the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences , where he studied photography with a focus on reportage with Adolf Clemens from 1995 to 2001 . For his diploma thesis Rio Santos 9 Places he received the Otto Steinert Prize of the German Society for Photography in 2002 . The work, originally conceived as an interactive CD-ROM, was created between January 2000 and February 2001 along the 450-kilometer coastal road from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo and portrays the everyday life of the people living there in nine selected locations.

Gebhardt has been working as a freelance photographer for international newspapers and magazines since 1999, including La Repubblica , the Stern , the Spiegel , Time Magazine , Die Zeit , the Sunday Times , the Frankfurter Rundschau , Die Welt and El Pais . Over the years he has also carried out various projects for the non-profit German Development Service and the Unicef children's aid organization . For example, the works 15 years after genocide: Ruanda and Park of Desires , for which he was nominated for the Unicef ​​Photo of the Year Award. From 2003 to 2009 he was a member of the photo agency visa.

Gebhardt has been a lecturer since 2007 and has been a professor of photo journalism and documentary photography at the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences since 2011 , succeeding Adolf Clemens. He is a member of the photo and photography agency laif , the Freelens Photographers Association and the German Society for Photography (DGPh).

Gebhardt is married and has two children. He lives and works in Cologne.

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Gebhardt's work focuses on international and national long-term reports that always have a regional reference. His subjects are shaped by the everyday cultural life of the people whom he visits on his travels, e.g. B. to South America, Africa or Eastern Europe. In addition, those topics are of particular interest to him that receive little attention in the media context, for example the living conditions in the Brazilian arid desert Sertão , which he drew attention to in 2010 in his photo essay Waiting for Rain - The Drought in North East Brazil . Since Gebhardt does not have a driver's license, he depends on public transport on his travels.

His portraits, travel and social reports have received numerous awards. In addition to exhibitions in Germany, his work has been exhibited in Spain , France , Bulgaria , the USA and the Netherlands . His social report across Germany also received a lot of attention . In the 25th year of German reunification , Gebhardt migrated from the westernmost to the easternmost point of Germany. On his journey from Isenbruch to Neißeaue , he portrayed the everyday life of the people living along the route. He was accompanied by travel reporter Jörg-Christian Schillmöller, with whom he had already worked in Iran . Schillmöller reported regularly on the project for Deutschlandfunk . Gebhardt returned to the stages of his 780 kilometer hike on a book tour.

Books (selection)

• 2017: Dirk Gebhardt: Across Germany . Nimbus publishing house. ISBN 978-3-03850-034-6
• 2016: Dirk Gebhardt: Cuba - 90 años Fidel. Un recuerdo de cuba. Slanted Publishers. ISBN 978-3-9818296-1-7
• 2014: Dirk Gebhardt, Theodor Barth et al .: eleven o'clock . Kettler publishing house. ISBN 978-3862063376
• 2013: Dirk Gebhardt: Under the open sky / Outdoors . Nimbus publishing house. ISBN 978-3-907142-90-5
• 2009: Dirk Gebhardt, Axel Thünker, Stefan Worring, Wolfgang Zurborn : In the middle of the west . Kiepenheuer & Witsch . ISBN 978-3-46203-819-4
• 2003: Dirk Gebhardt et al .: ways of life . Edition Körber Foundation , Hamburg. ISBN 978-3-89684-340-1
• 1998: Dirk Gebhardt (photographs and graphic design): Boo Chang Kang, photographs 1964-96 . Matices editions
• 1997: Dirk Gebhardt (photographs and graphic design): Santiago de Cuba, between tradition and modernity . Culture House Latin America (ed.)

Web links

• Website of the photographer

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Dirk Gebhardt | German Society for Photography. Accessed on September 9, 2017 . 
2. ↑ about us - one year Germany - on foot from west to east. Retrieved September 9, 2017 . 
3. ↑ Gebhardt, Dirk. Retrieved September 9, 2017 (UK English). 
4. ↑ Photo book: Across - Germany from West to East. Retrieved September 9, 2017 .