Over 100 years of travel photography
Travel selfies or holiday snaps on Facebook - traveling seems to inspire photography. An exhibition in Berlin shows holiday impressions from well-known photographers. Here is a small sample of what to expect.
A critical eye
Pictures by Thomas Hoepker, which he took on a reporting trip to the US in 1963, can be seen as a criticism of the American way of life. He spotted this ad for indigestion medication on a bus in New York. Hoepker's photo is part of the exhibition "Faraway Focus" at the Berlinische Galerie - Museum of Modern Art from May 19 through September 11, 2017.
A bird's-eye view
Robert Petschow traveled through Germany and Switzerland between 1920 and 1939 using a Zeppelin airship, a hot air balloon and airplanes - from which he took some impressive pictures. This shot shows the Eglisau viaduct in Switzerland in the morning light, around 1930.
US travels in the 1930s
Erich Salomon was known in Europe for his photo reports. The pictures he took during a trip to the US are very prosaic and documentary impressions. This one from 1930/1932 portrays the Fairfax Hunt Club in Virginia.
Pioneers in a new place
Salomon often photographed international conferences and he was the first to be allowed to take pictures inside the White House. Here, he documented his approach to Ellis Island in New York around 1932.
Early street photography
A trip to the World Youth Games in Minsk in 1957 provided the artistic breakthrough for young photographer Evelyn Richter. Using her compact 35 mm camera, she captured life on the streets.
Internal travels
Living under Communist rule in former East Germany, Ulrich Wüst used photography to quench his longing for far-away places. That way he managed to discover Tuscany on his doorstep in Thuringia. This piece from 1985 his from his series "Head-trips and Odysseys."
Tourists in a divided homeland
The oppressive atmosphere of the transit route between East and West Germany was captured in the pictures by the then West Berlin photographers Hans Pieler and Wolf Lützen for their 1984 series, "Transit Berlin-Hamburg."
Touring deserted places
The line between fact and fiction is blurred in Tobias Zielony's contemporary documentary pictures. His photos show youths in a virtually deserted old mining town in California. Pictured here is "Car Wreck" from his 2008 series "Trona - Armpit of America."
Traces of devastation
A three-month Goethe Institute scholarship took Hans-Christian Schink to Kyoto in 2012. There he took inventory of the aftermath of the devastating tsunami a year earlier.
Poking fun at tourism
In the 1990s Karl von Westerholt traveled the world and took pictures of mass tourism sites, creating the series "The World in Extracts." His photographs are a parody of the world travelers who incessantly take pictures.
What do we see?
A view of the sea or a Mediterranean landscape? In Kurt Buchwald's pictures it is hidden behind a red square, so you need to use your imagination. This untitled work is from his 1991 series "Cala San Vincente, Mallorca."