Architecture + Photography #3 – Architektur Galerie Berlin

The third edition of the ongoing exhibition series “Architecture + Photography” juxtaposes three contemporary photographers who deal with the appropriation of various habitats. Whereas classic architectural photography mainly places the focal point on finished buildings framed as autonomous objects, this exhibition focuses on environments that have not been designed by architects. A number of the images shown are projects the photographers worked on parallel to their commissioned work. They are proof of the growing interest in analyzing everyday architecture and its users, in addition to the well-known documentation of outstanding new building projects.

Roger Frei (born 1971) is one of the most important, young architectural photographers in Switzerland and photographs for influential offices like Baumschlager Eberle and EM2N, among others. At the same time, he works on several of his own projects like the current series « Aedes ». The motifs are composed of hundrets of individual photos of cropped images of corridors meticulously assembled into a complete picture. A kind of photographic system interface is created with countless details. An amazing spectrum of variants is shown with which the inhabitants « beautify » their immediate living environment, to lend individual character to the anonymous architecture—often in apparent opposition to it.

Berlin-based photographer Andreas Gehrke (born 1975) is, under the pseudonym Noshe, one of the most famous architecture and lifestyle photographers in Germany. His clients include Sauerbruch Hutton, Distanz Verlag and Hatje Cantz publishers, among others. Parallel to his commissioned work, he pursues not only numerous independent projects, but also founded Drittel Books publishing in 2013. Motifs from the « Brandenburg » series are exhibited in this show; a series Gehrke has been working on since 2009. In these images, he combines completely different motifs in a narrative manner for a amazing kaleidoscope. Alongside Brandenburg landscapes with barely visible traces of human use, are portraits of anonymous everyday architecture, as well as puzzling technical buildings.

Stefan Oláh (born 1971) lives in Vienna and works as a photographer representing a very different approach. In addition to his artistic and publishing activities, he photographs for clients in culture, business and the public sector. In his own work, he devotes himself mainly to artifacts of the built environment, though not the glamorous center of public interest, but nevertheless an important part all the same. An illustrative example is the series shown in the exhibition, « 95 Viennese Sausage Stands. » The series combines portraits of the typical Viennese sidewalk stall « building type. » Though they inevitably shape public space, their hasty design is left to the stall owners as design laity.

Opening: Thursday, March 13, 2014 – 19:00
Welcome: Ulrich Mueller
Introduction: Christina Graewe
Duration: March 14 – April 26, 2014

Architektur Generator Berlin 
Thursday, April 24, 2014 – 14:00
Was heißt Architekturfotografie heute?
Gespräch zur Ausstellung Architektur + Fotografie III