It’s already 2017, so it’s about time for another InstaMeet. And because one isn’t enough, there are three for you in three different cities: in Berlin, Essen and Hannover.

C/O Berlin, the Museum Folkwang in Essen, and the Sprengel Museum Hannover are presenting a joint exhibition project, which for the first time portrays the history, influences, and effects of the Werkstatt für Photographie and its key players. You all know the American photographers Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, William Eggleston and Stephen Shore, but probably haven’t heard so much about the German photographers Thomas Florschuetz, Hildegard Ochse, Gundula Schulze Eldowy and Michael Schmidt.

Starting in the 1970s, a younger generation in various initiatives quickly established a new infrastructure for a different perspective on photography. The Werkstatt für Photographie (Workshop for Photography), founded in Berlin by Michael Schmidt in 1976, is one of these innovative models. The Werkstatt für Photographie reached an international recognition through exhibitions, workshops, and courses, establishing itself as an important center for the transatlantic dialogue on photography between Kreuzberg, Germany, and America. The three exhibitions focus on the awakening of a medium, which—encouraged by the self-confidence of American photography—strove to claim autonomous, artistic authorship.

They concentrated on the blunt representation of everyday life and reality in a radical denial of then-common photographic norms. They experimented with new forms of documentary that emphasized the subjective view of the author. They discovered color as an artistic form of expression and developed an independent, artistic authorship with largely unconventional perspectives.

So, let’s meet, take a look at their photographs and take photos ourselves afterwards. How do we photograph our urban environment today? How do we portray people today? How does the transatlantic and, more generally, the international photographic dialogue work in the era of Instagram? @thisaintartschool will host an assignment so we’ll hopefully get an answer. And we would like to meet you in person.

Dates and times for #werkstattphotographie:

Jan 14: @coberlin, 11 a.m.
Jan 21: @museum_folkwang, Essen, 11 a.m.
Jan 28: @sprengel_museum_hannover, 11 a.m.

This Ain’t Art School will join you in all three cities.

Please leave a comment here on Instagram if you like to join all or just one of the Instameets. There are 25 spots for each city.

 

P.S. Anika is one half of This Ain’t Art School.

Cover image: Wolfgang Eilmes, aus Kreuzberg, 1979 © Wolfgang Eilmes