“Lebensräume | Contemporary Perspectives from NRW” brings together fourteen photographers from North Rhine-Westphalia for an individual inventory of the state. Published by Hartmann Books in 2026 and issued by the Photographic Collection/SK Stiftung Kultur, the book accompanies an exhibition at Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur in Cologne running from 13 March to 12 July 2026. Across roughly 82 illustrations in about 104 pages, the included photographic series and films address people and their diverse origins, ways of life and social circumstances; urban architecture and urban change; and the history of the federal state as a transforming industrial and landscape site. Among the subjects named by the publisher are portraits, open-cast mining, landscape, periphery, industrial architecture, cityscapes, parks, social housing, and the cities of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Essen, as well as Hürtgenwald.
The fourteen photographers are Almourad Aldeeb, Paul Avis, Boris Becker, Frank Dömer, Emine Ercihan, Kathrin Esser, Claudia Fährenkemper, Katharina Kemme, Alexander Lackmann, Jeffrey Ladd, Melina Lehmacher, Gregor Schneider, Gerhard Winkler and Philip Zietmann. The texts are by Gabriele Conrath-Scholl and Claudia Schubert, who are authors rather than photographers, together with contributions by the photographers themselves. The design is by Bureau Sandra Doeller, Frankfurt am Main. The German-language volume is a flap brochure measuring 22 × 28 cm, with ISBN 978-3-96070-141-5.
The publisher frames the project around inquiries into history, memory and change, and presents photography in general and the photobook in particular as the predestined medium for those inquiries. The book thus gathers fourteen distinct photographic positions and their related films in a single volume shaped by a shared regional focus and an exhibition context.
