A fast M45 bus took me from outside the Scharf-Gerstenberg gallery opposite Schloss Charlottenburg, through Ernst-Reuter-Platz and down to the bus station at Berlin Zoo (or Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten as it’s strictly called). I grabbed a roll by way of lunch and at 13:50 went out of the back door of the station into Jebensstraße for the Museum für Fotografie (and Helmut Newton Foundation), which is almost exactly opposite.
There were four exhibitions to see here (this is hard work, I tell you!). The big one was ‘Helmut Newton: World Without Men’). Before Newton published his own books of fashion photography he worked on commissions for top magazines and fashion houses. He later published many of these iconic images from the 1960s to 1980s in his fourth book, ‘World Without Men’, in 1984. This exhibition was a presentation, for the first time, of all of the photos in the now legendary book.
Whether or not one likes Newton’s work (and I do), or is interested in fashion, there is no doubt that he was the consummate professional, with everything impeccably staged, lit and photographed. Bearing in mind the market he was working for there were some remarkable images here, with all the drama and surprise that his publications demanded. The huge staircase up to the first floor is panelled with massive B&W enlargements of some of his well-known nudes, of course.
'World Without Men' was complemented by ‘Archives de Nuit’, an exhibition of Newton’s portraits, nudes, landscapes and still life – but no fashion – from the late 1980s and early 1990s, originally created as an exhibition by him and premiered in Paris in 1992 before touring in Europe. There seemed to be some more personal, family images here, which I liked, and it was good to see what Helmut Newton made of what we might think of as more conventional subjects.
Exhibition number three was a single room of 30 photographic portraits by the French artist and author François-Marie Banier. [Wikipedia describes Banier as a “French novelist, gigolo, playwright, artist, actor and photographer... particularly known for his photographs of celebrities and other public figures and for his friendships with members of high society”.] His subjects here were certainly all public figures, most of whom I’d heard of, and I enjoyed nearly all the pictures.
The selection included HM The Queen and at least two US Presidents. As a classical music fan I was particularly interested in two photos of the great pianist Vladimir Horowitz (I think he was the only subject with two portraits in this show), probably taken when he was in his early 80s; one showed him sitting astride a huge Honda motorbike, with an equally huge and boyish grin on his face!
My final exhibition filled the whole top floor of the Museum für Fotografie. Called ‘Idylle + Desaster’ it assembled just some of the many historic and sometimes mundane photos collected by the Düsseldorf artist Bogomir Ecker, this big selection focusing on ‘idylls and disasters’. It was not as sensational or as depressing as it sounds! Ecker collects anything from 19th-century landscapes to 20th-century news and sensational photos, and uses them directly in his artistic work and also as a source of inspiration.
There were many images of technology and experimental science, as well as natural disasters, destruction and more subtle but menacing situations. Many of the individual images were very interesting – typically they were all quite unrelated to each other although the hanging of the exhibition was good – but collectively they did say something of the human condition.
Finally I was out of the Museum für Fotografie after an hour and a half at 15:20, caught the U9 direct from Zoo to Osloer Straße, and was back to my apartment in 20 minutes.
