Pixel project Ruhr area
The Ruhrgebiet pixel project collects serial photography on individual aspects of the Ruhrgebiet region on the Internet. As a result, the photographic memory of the region should be made visible.
initiative
The Ruhr area pixel project was founded in 2003 on the initiative of 26 freelance photographers in the artistic tradition of the photographer agency Magnum Photos and has grown into a project of certified high-quality photography that has been recognized far beyond the region.
The network now consists of around 5,000 photographers from Germany and abroad, more than 300 of whom have become part of the project. In contrast to the above-mentioned Magnum agency, the project does not pursue any commercial interests and also has no rights to use the photographs. Rather, it sees itself primarily in an artistic, social and regional responsibility.
The collection works decentrally, i. H. the originals remain with the picture authors or in the museum collections and are put together individually for individual exhibitions. The project is funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and further developed in cooperation with the Ruhr Museum Essen and the German Werkbund .
The project was developed in 2002 by Peter Liedtke , who has been leading and developing the project since then.
Taking pictures
For inclusion in the project, it is important to have a relevant discussion of individual topics as well as an independent artistic photographic representation by the respective picture authors. The project arranges these series of images, puts them into a thematic and chronological structure and makes them visible on the website.
Current and historical series of images can be submitted by photographers and museums at any time. Once a year, parts of these new applications are assessed by a jury of art, photography and regional experts and included in the project. The digital collection grows with these works. The new recordings are presented to the public in an annual exhibition in the Gelsenkirchen Science Park .
Thematically, the image archive of the pixel project is essentially divided into the areas of ecology, social affairs, art and culture, city and architecture, living, economic change and sport. The focus of the collection is on the people of the region.
Involved
The selection jury consists of Prof. Elisabeth Neudörfl, Professor of Documentary Photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts , Stefanie Grebe, Head of the Photo Archive of the Ruhr Museum Essen, Prof. Dirk Gebhardt, Professor of Photojournalism and Documentary Photography, Dortmund University of Applied Sciences , Michael Gaigalat, Head of Collection Services, Rhineland Landscape Association , Prof. Hermann Dornhege, professor of photography at the Münster University of Applied Sciences and Peter Liedtke, head of the Pixelprojekt_Ruhrgebiet.
The works come from renowned, partly internationally active photographers, including numerous winners of recognized photography prizes. In addition, many photography students and a few amateurs participate in the project.
Photography in the Ruhr area
With its design colleges in Essen, Folkwang - Universität der Künste und Fachhochschule Dortmund , Ruhrakademie in Schwerte, the Ruhr area is close to Fachhochschule Münster , Fachhochschule Düsseldorf and Fachhochschule Bielefeld , as well as to the academies in Düsseldorf and Münster (each with photography departments), and not least developed its own photography scene due to the dense museum and gallery landscape .
The Ruhr area itself has always been the place and space for artistic, photographic confrontation. These include people such as Albert Renger-Patzsch , Chargesheimer , Bernd and Hilla Becher and Thomas Struth and Otto Steinert , who taught at the Folkwang School and thus ran a forge for young photography. His students, André Gelpke , Timm Rautert , Rudi Meisel, Dirk Reinartz , Wolfgang Volz , Joachim Schumacher , Brigitte Kraemer , Georg Schreiber , Susan Lamér, Gosbert Adler , Petra Wittmar, Manfred Vollmer , Michael Wolf , Henning Christoph, Knut Wolfgang Maron , Joachim Brohm and many more (some of them are now professors of photography at German-speaking universities themselves) repeatedly designed images that have become an integral part of the region’s photographic memory.
While photography was for the region itself only the medium of attracting attention for many years, a change began with the Emscher Park International Building Exhibition . For the first time photography accompanied the transformation process in a variety of ways. Photography no longer only served to depict the building, but became part of the planning process as a source of ideas.
Gallery one hundred
Galerie Hundert produces and sells photographic works on the Ruhr area in limited editions with an edition of 100 + 1 photographs each. The photographs come from the collection of the Pixelprojekt_ Ruhrgebiet. The editions have been coordinated in close cooperation with the respective photographer or their legal successors in terms of the type of elaboration, the size and the form of presentation and are considered authorized originals. The gallery is located in Gelsenkirchen and has partner galleries in Dortmund and Essen. The gallery was closed in 2017 for economic reasons.
ruhr.speak
ruhr.speak is a blog for photography, urbanity and the search for the future for industrial spaces and societies. The blog, founded in 2012, is a project by Pixelprojekt_Ruhrgebiet and follows an idea by Niko Synnatzschke and Christoph Kniel. It is edited by Peter Liedtke, Martina Kötters and Melanie Kemner.
Awards
Pixelprojekt_Ruhrgebiet was selected as one of the best ideas in Germany for the design of the city of the future in the 2013/2014 competition “Excellent locations in the land of ideas ”. In 2014 the project was awarded the “Structure” prize at the 6th history competition of the Forum for History on the Ruhr and Emscher. In 2017 it was honored at the 7th history competition of the Forum for History on the Ruhr and Emscher for the contribution neueheimat.ruhr out of competition.
literature
- ÜberTage - Photographic positions on the presence of a region. Art Museum Mülheim an der Ruhr in cooperation with Pixelprojekt Ruhrgebiet, 2010, ISBN 978-3-928135-53-5 .
- Pixel project Ruhr area - digital collection of photographic positions as regional memory. Klartext-Verlag , Essen 2008, ISBN 978-3-89861-847-2 .
- Hans Jörg Loskill (Ed.): Revier Atelier - Peter Liedtke. Klartext-Verlag , Essen 2007, ISBN 978-3-89861-838-0 .
- easy and wide - bridges in the new Emschertal. Ludwig Galerie Schloss Oberhausen , Oberhausen 2005, ISBN 3-932236-18-1 .
- Ulrich Haas-Pursiainen et al: Migration and Nomadic Living - Backlight ´11. Tampere Art Museum and Photographic Center Nykyaika, Tampere 2011, ISBN 978-951-609-505-2 .
swell
- Image Cultures 1 - Studies on Representation and Reception, Power and Fashion - Anna Zika. VDG, Weimar 2011, ISBN 978-3-89739-731-6
- Excellent idea for the city of tomorrow
- Photographic memory of the Ruhr area in taz from April 28, 2005