Blackbox #5

As part of EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography

During the 1970s, the artist Dieter Hacker (born in 1942), today best known for his painting, worked intensely with amateur photography as an artistic political medium as coeditor of the the journal “Volksfoto: Zeitung für Fotografie” with Andreas Seltzer. A total of six issues were accompanied by exhibitions in which analogous photographs that Hacker received from private individuals were used to create interactive installations. These installations explored the relationship between privacy and publicity, the individual and the mass, art and trash.

In addition to this “people’s photography,” Hacker created several photographs, series, and installations that not only comment on theories of photography history, but also the provincial mindset of West Germany.

Bröhan-Museum dedicates a solo show to Hacker’s photographic work: whether “people’s art” or social media: the questions on the power and powerlessness of floods of images, the photograph as an instrument of self staging are more relevant than ever in the age of Facebook and Instagram.

A catalogue brochure will be published to accompany the exhibition.

Curators: Dieter Hacker, Fabian Reifferscheidt
Advertising motiv: Gerwin Schmidt, 2018