Museum of Photography (Berlin)

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Museum of Photography, January 2004

The Museum of Photography is an institution of the Berlin State Museums of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation as a department of the art library . It is located in the former Landwehr casino at Jebensstrasse 2 opposite the Zoologischer Garten train station in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg .

History of the building

The neoclassical building was used as a casino for the "Officers Corps of the Landwehr Inspection Berlin e. V. “established. In the presence of Kaiser Wilhelm II , the building planned by Heino Schmieden and Julius Boethke was inaugurated on September 2, 1909. In contrast to the simple external appearance, it had a splendid interior and housed ballrooms, guest rooms and a restaurant. The most representative room was the 665 m² and eleven meter high Imperial Hall on the second floor.

The Berlin Senate acquired the Landwehr Casino , which was badly damaged in World War II, in 1950 and made it available to the art library. From 1978 to 1986 the Berlinische Galerie used the space for exhibitions. When the new building of the art library at the Kulturforum was moved into in 1993 , the house was only used as a depot and workshop for the Museum of European Cultures and the Old National Gallery .

Museum of Photography

The museum is designed as an exhibition, research and documentation center for the medium of photography.

The main attraction is the collection of the Helmut Newton Foundation . The Berlin-born photographer founded the foundation himself shortly before his accidental death at the end of 2003 and signed a contract with the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation. It stipulates that the foundation, based in Zurich, has the ground floor and the first floor as exhibition space for permanent use under Swiss law . Newton's photographic legacy is to be shown in changing exhibitions and, according to his wishes, will become a “living institution”.

In 2019 the museum had around 128,000 visitors.

Exhibitions

  • The museum opened on June 3, 2004 with the double exhibition Us and Them and Sex and Landscapes in the presence of Newton's widow June , who herself became a renowned photographer under the pseudonym "Alice Springs". In addition, the permanent exhibition Helmut Newton's Private Property was set up on the ground floor in November 2004 . Objects from the private possession of Newton, such as cameras, notebooks and parts of his office in Monte Carlo , are shown there.
  • 2010: A new look: architectural photography from the National Museums in Berlin.
  • 2011/2012: good prospects - young german photography .
  • 2012: The Colonial Eye. Early portrait photography in India .
  • 2013: The naked truth and more .
  • 2014/2015: Photography in the First World War . Catalog.
  • 2016: Bernard Larsson - Leaving is Entering .
  • 2017/2018: Working in history. Contemporary Chinese Photography and the Cultural Revolution (an exhibition by the Art Library of the State Museums in Berlin and the Society for German-Chinese Cultural Exchange eV GeKA)

literature

  • Ludger Derenthal, Christine Kühn (Ed.): Museum for Photography. Art Library - Photography Collection, Helmut Newton Foundation / SMB, National Museums in Berlin. Seemann, Leipzig 2010, ISBN 978-3-86502-253-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berlin State Museums counted more than 4 million visitors in 2019. January 31, 2020, accessed July 19, 2020 .
  2. ^ Exhibition catalog A New Look: Architectural Photography from the National Museums in Berlin . Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen / Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8030-0704-9 .
  3. ^ Exhibition catalog Das Koloniale Auge. Early portrait photography in India . Koehler and Amelang, Leipzig 2012.
  4. ↑ Breasts on barite . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 9, 2013, p. 11
  5. ↑ Six hundred images a minute . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 11, 2014, p. 12
  6. ↑ Suspended . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , August 24, 2016, p. 11

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '27.8 "  N , 13 ° 19' 54.4"  E