Die Stadt: Vom Werden und Vergehen

When this book appeared in 2010, more people worldwide already lived in cities than in the countryside. Die Stadt: Vom Werden und Vergehen takes that condition as a premise and asks what it does to the people inside it: what hopes attach to urban life, how the city orders everyday routines, and how it reshapes relations between people, their surroundings and one another.

The answers are supplied by eighteen photographers of OSTKREUZ, the Berlin photographers’ agency, whose stated method is to recognise the core of a subject, show it plainly and stay honest in the showing. Working across very different circumstances, they photograph the experimental settlement of Auroville in India, promoted as an urban utopia; the slums of Manila; a Detroit decaying from its centre; Ordos, a Chinese city drawn on the planning table before it was built; the manufactured look of Dubai’s streets; and bombed-out housing in Gaza. The publisher presents these places as contributing to the portrait of a city that is all cities.

The volume is substantial and bilingual, with German and English text across 296 pages and 170 photographs, issued as a hardcover of 291 by 316 millimetres. OSTKREUZ edited it; Naroska Design is credited with the design; Marcus Jauer and Anne-Dore Krohn contribute texts, with a foreword by Jauer and an afterword by Felix Hoffmann. Stiftung Kunstfonds supported the publication with funds from VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, and it accompanied an exhibition at C/O Berlin in the Postfuhramt, 8 May to 4 July 2010.

For a collector, the appeal lies in the structure rather than in any single signature. This is a group inquiry in which one question is pursued across separate bodies of work by Sibylle Bergemann, Harald Hauswald, Ute and Werner Mahler, Anne Schönharting and their colleagues, each photographing on his or her own terms. The publication and its associated exhibition situate this collective inquiry in 2010. For readers interested in documentary photography, the shared questions connect urban aspirations with the specific circumstances of everyday life across different places.

Meanwhile, more people live in cities than in the countryside worldwide. What hopes and wishes do they associate with the city? How does the city shape their everyday lives and their relationships with the environment and other people? The photographers of the Berlin agency OSTKREUZ explored these questions. OSTKREUZ stands for a specific approach: to recognize the core of things, to depict it, and to remain honest in this depiction. The 18 photographers portray the inhabitants of the urban utopia Auroville in India, the slums of Manila, and Detroit, decaying from its center; they document the Chinese city of Ordos, designed on the drawing board, the artificiality of Dubai's streetscapes, and the bombed-out houses of Gaza. What ultimately emerges is the portrait of a city that is all cities. This publication was funded by Stiftung Kunstfonds with means from VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. Participating photographers:Sibylle Bergemann, Jörg Brüggemann, Espen Eichhöfer, Annette Hauschild, Harald Hauswald, Pepa Hristová, Andrej Krementschouk, Ute & Werner Mahler, Thomas Meyer, Dawin Meckel, Julian Röder, Frank Schinski, Jordis Antonia Schlösser, Anne Schönharting, Linn Schröder, Heinrich Völkel, Maurice Weiss Exhibition: C/O Berlin, Postfuhramt 8.5.–4.7.2010

Beiträge von: Marcus Jauer, Anne-Dore Krohn
Edited by: Ostkreuz – Agentur der Fotografen
Designed by: Naroska Design
Nachwort von: Felix Hoffmann
Vorwort von: Marcus Jauer
German, English
May 2010, 296 Pages , 170 Photos
hardcover
291mm x 316mm
ISBN:978-3-7757-2659-7

Publisher page editorial text:
| It is said that the city is the future of the world. The Ostkreuz photographers show us what that means
By now, more people around the world live in cities than in the country. What sort of hopes and dreams are bound up in the city? In what ways does the city influence everyday life as well as people’s relationships with the environment and their fellow human beings? Photographers from the Berlin agency Ostkreuz have investigated these questions. Ostkreuz represents a specific approach—namely, recognizing what is at the heart of things, depicting it, and keeping the pictures honest. The eighteen featured photographers portrait residents of Auroville, an urban utopia in India, the slums of Manila, and the center of a decaying Detroit. They document the city of Ordos in China, which was created on a drawing table, the artificiality of Dubai’s streets, and the bombed-out buildings in Gaza. The result is a portrait of a city that is all cities.

This Publication was supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds and VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.
 
Featured photographers:
Sibylle Bergemann, Jörg Brüggemann, Espen Eichhöfer, Annette Hauschild, Harald Hauswald, Pepa Hristová, Andrej Krementschouk, Ute & Werner Mahler, Thomas Meyer, Dawin Meckel, Julian Röder, Frank Schinski, Jordis Antonia Schlosser, Anne Schönharting, Linn Schröder, Heinrich Völkel, Maurice Weiss
 
Exhibition schedule: C/O Berlin, Postfuhramt, May 8–July 4, 2010

Publisher source ↗