With the camera. Worpswede’s early photographs / Mit der Kamera. Worpswedes frühe Fotografien
Since its invention, the medium of photography has exerted a great fascination on people and has touched them in many different ways. Whether as a personal memory, as documentation or as an artistic statement – photographs are carriers of stories from all areas of our lives.
In many art museums, photographs are part of the collection. Depending on the origin of the collection, these include not only artistic photographic works, but often also personal archival material. Both deserve equal attention because they enable a differentiated view of past realities.
The Barkenhoff collection also includes a large number of photographic prints. The collection covers all important genres of photography, but has not yet been presented on a large scale. The barkenhoff museum’s current exhibition “With the camera. Worpswede’s early photographs” now puts the medium centre stage.
Portraits of Heinrich and Martha Vogeler, taken by outstanding photographers such as Hugo Erfurth, Nicola Perscheid and Rudolph Stickelmann, can be seen alongside landscape photographs by Julius Frank, Hans Saebens and Georg Tappert. Personal memories of the artists are also on display, for example a photo taken by Rainer Maria Rilke of his newlywed wife Clara Rilke-Westhoff on a walk, or a picture of the Modersohn family photographed by Martha Vogeler during a visit to the Barkenhoff, now a museum in Worpswede.
The compilation of these different photographs provides an exciting overview of the use of photographic techniques in Worpswede from 1895 to the 1930s.
Images:
Julius Frank, Untitled (Rest), undated, © Barkenhoff-Stiftung Worpswede
Martha Vogeler, Untitled (Paula Modersohn-Becker, Otto Modersohn with daughter Elsbeth in the Barkenhoff garden), around 1904
Nicola Perscheid, Untitled (Portrait of Heinrich Vogeler), around 1921
Rudolph Stickelmann, Untitled (Landscape),without year
Carl Eeg, Untitled (Heinrich Vogeler in knight’s costume and Martha Schröder), 1898
