Michael Schmidt - Photographs 1965–2014 - 2020

Michael Schmidt (1945 - 2014) is, together with Bernd and Hilla Becher, one of the defining photographers of German post-war photography. His works are represented in national and international collections, and he has presented his work in numerous solo and group exhibitions. In 2014 he received the renowned Prix Pictet.

Michael Schmidt initially photographed exclusively in Berlin. In the early 1970s, commissions for district offices and the Senate emerged on neighborhoods such as Kreuzberg and Wedding or on social topics. The book and exhibition project "Waffenruhe", a visually powerful psychogram of the then divided city, which was shown for the first time in Berlin in 1987, also made Michael Schmidt internationally known. He moved away from the concentration on the motifs of his hometown with the work group "Ein-heit", which refers to the process of Germany’s reunification and was presented to the public for the first time in 1996 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

In his work, Schmidt devoted himself to the meaning of the urban space, the enduring relevance of history, the self-portrait, the self-understanding of women, and the significance of nature and food. Through the continually further developed photographic engagement with reality and the different publication formats, his work has an exemplary character.

The catalog published in 2020 (English edition!) for the retrospective is the first publication to cover the life’s work in its entirety and presents, in chronological order, the artistic development of Michael Schmidt’s work. The work groups are shown based on a selection of representative pieces. Numerous images of working material such as proof prints and book designs, as well as archival materials like invitation cards, posters, and exhibition views, provide information about Michael Schmidt’s working methods in realizing his book and exhibition projects. The catalog essays are texts by curators who closely collaborated with him on various projects during the artist’s lifetime. Contributions by Ute Eskildsen, Janos Frecot, Peter Galassi, Heinz Liesbrock & Thomas Weski. 400 pages with 521 (353 color) sometimes full-page illustrations, an exhibition index, and bibliography.