Ostkreuz (picture agency)

Ostkreuz is the name of a Berlin photographer agency with an attached picture archive . The name Ostkreuz is derived from the traffic hub of the same name in Berlin.

Founding history

Ostkreuz was founded in 1990 by seven photographers . The founding was preceded by an initiative by the Stern photo journalist Petra Göllnitz . Sibylle Bergemann , Ute and Werner Mahler , Jens Rötzsch , Harald Hauswald , Thomas Sandberg and Harf Zimmermann were important photographers in the GDR. The Parisian photo agency Magnum was the model for visual language and the cooperative professional organization .

“In 1990 everything changed. Everything was new. Everything. We founded Ostkreuz as both a survival strategy and a means of bringing like-minded people together. In those early days we had no idea how to run an agency. We couldn't even get a landline. So we bought a “mobile” Siemens telephone in West Berlin for 7,000 DM (around € 5,000 by today's standards). That was a fortune and the phone was too valuable to leave in the office. It weighed over five kilos. We took turns dragging it home with us in the evening. But it was the only way to get in touch with us. "

- Ute Mahler on founding the agency

Ostkreuz today

The agency currently has 21 photographers. The focus of the work, which is based on author photography , is in the areas of portraits , reports , landscapes , architecture , travel and fashion . Ostkreuz is the most successful photographer-run agency in Germany.

Some of the agency's photographers have won national and international awards. In 2013 the agency was awarded the Konrad Wolf Prize .

Ostkreuzschule

The private Ostkreuz School for Photography and Design in Berlin-Weißensee is a partner of the agency. The school was founded in 2004 by Thomas Sandberg and Werner Mahler. The main focus of the three-and-a-half-year training lies in the training of photographic vision, the development and promotion of one's own photographic handwriting and the confident creative use of the medium of photography. This knowledge is imparted in practice and theory for both analog and digital photography.

In 2007 the first year graduated. In 2010, for the first time, a specially created website referred to the exhibition of the works of the graduating class. Since 2012, the works of the graduates have been published on their own websites under a specific exhibition name. In 2012 the exhibition was called Echoes , 2013 Seven , 2015 OHO .

Well-known photographers (selection)

• Harald Hauswald
• Andrej Krementschouk (until 2011)
• Ute Mahler
• Ina Schoenenburg
• Sibylle Bergemann

literature

• OSTKREUZ Agency of Photographers: Die Stadt. About becoming and passing away. Hatje Cantz , Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2659-7 .
• Sibylle Bergemann, Harald Hauswald, Ute and Werner Mahler, Maurice Weiss a. a .: OSTZEIT - stories from a bygone country. Hatje Cantz , Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-7757-2486-9 .
• Sibylle Bergemann u. a .: OSTKREUZ, agency of photographers. Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-910190-00-6 .
• Sibylle Bergemann, Matthias Flügge, Cees Nooteboom, Jutta Voigt: Photographs. Academy of Arts Berlin , Museum for Photography (Braunschweig) . Edition Braus, Heidelberg 2006, ISBN 3-89904-252-2 .
• Harald Hauswald, Lutz Rathenow (text): Turned around - before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Photos and texts from the east. Jaron, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-89773-532-6
• Christoph Ribbat, Ostkreuz: Pictures of Germany. 17 photographic positions. Edition Braus, Heidelberg 2005, ISBN 3-89904-182-8 .

documentary

• Photo: Ostkreuz , Germany 2015. Script / Director / Camera: Maik Reichert. Running time 89 min. Documentation about the past and present of the picture agency.

Web links

• The Ostkreuz picture agency on the Internet
• East of Eden. From the GDR to Germany 1974-1999 - exhibition of the Ostkreuz photographers of the Foundation House of History of the Federal Republic of Germany
• The Ostkreuzschule on the Internet

Individual evidence

1. ↑ "You'll have to find out by yourself ..." Accessed January 8, 2014 . 
2. ↑ art-magazin.de: TIMELESS MONA LISA. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on January 8, 2014 ; accessed on January 8, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ Interview with Ute Mahler on the Goethe Institute website, accessed on January 18, 2014
4. ↑ Goethe Institute: "OSTKREUZ - Four young positions of the Berlin agency". Retrieved February 10, 2014 . 
5. ↑ adk.de. Retrieved January 8, 2014 . 
6. ↑ vierterjahrgang.de ( Memento of the original from January 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (vierterjahrgang.de, accessed on January 19, 2014) 
7. ↑ echos - final exhibition Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie - 6th year ( Memento of the original from February 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (echos-ausstellung.de, accessed on January 19, 2014) 
8. ↑ seven - final exhibition Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie - 7th year (seven-ausstellung.de, accessed on January 19, 2014)
9. ^ OHO Ostkreuzschule Photography. Ninth year ( memento of the original from December 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
10. ↑ Rental information