DUSSELDORF.- The exhibition "8 Projects – From Landscape to Interior" is the result of a collaboration between the DFI e. V. and Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur, Cologne, as well as a long-standing exchange with Brussels-based curator and editor Jean-Paul Deridder, who founded Imagebeeld Edition in 2022. Since then, he has continuously published portfolios of renowned international artists under this label, who pursue an objective photographic approach as well as a preference for documentary photography. This is expressed, on the one hand, through an intensive examination of often unnoticed yet significant themes, as well as through the analogue processing of the images, which are predominantly created with large-format cameras (8x10 inch). Furthermore, the photographers find common ground in a conceptual, analytical approach to the medium and their motifs. Finally, a network has developed from the activities of the individuals, through which encounters and projects continually grow.

Die Photographische Sammlung/SK Stiftung Kultur joins in, feeling very connected to the Imagebeeld Edition program and previously included some of the currently participating artists in its exhibition program. These include Laurenz Berges, Alessandra Dragoni, Marcello Galvani, Guido Guidi, Francesco Neri and Jem Southam.

The current exhibition thus brings to the fore an international commitment to a specific direction in photography, which has grown through the self-conception of the artists and curators and is being presented in this form for the first time.

The exhibition presents eight portfolios, created by Jean-Paul Deridder in close collaboration with the participating artists. The overall goal is to present the series to a photography and art-loving audience to promote discourse about the medium and its recognition. Each portfolio is hand-bound and individually designed, often accompanied by a book publication. Furthermore, they can be viewed as artistic units and exhibition sets. Thematically, all the projects presented revolve around photographic explorations of a particular area.

The monographic portfolios presented are by:

1. Laurenz Berges (Düsseldorf), presenting seven motifs from his series “Am Mühlenkamp”

2. Peter Downsbrough (Brussels) is included with the second edition of his first book of photographs Two Pipes, Fourteen Locations and three images from “Longvilliers”

3. Gerry Johansson (Strandbaden, Sweden) and his series “Coast to Coast”

4. Francesco Neri (Faenza, Italy) and his series “Wooden Tool Shed”

5. Mark Ruwedel (Long Beach, USA) with the series “Burnt”

6. Jem Southam (Exeter, UK) with the series “The Pond at Upton Pyne”

7. John Spinks (London) with two series from his book “Harrowdown Hill”

8. In addition, a mixed cassette titled “Otto volte” due" is presented, featuring works by Italian photographers Nicola Baldazzi, Alessandra Dragoni, Cesare Fabbri, Marcello Galvani, Francesca Gardini, Guido Guidi, Franceso Neri, and Luca Nostri.

The numerous and diverse nature of the photographers means that their perspectives on the landscapes and motifs they have selected and examined closely are equally diverse. Characteristic is their restrained and precise notation of the observed and their preference for seemingly mundane and time-bound discoveries, which they ennoble in the image.

Laurenz Berges (Düsseldorf): In his photographs he often focuses on places that have long been abandoned and in some cases have fallen into disrepair. The traces left behind by people alone point to their facilities, their activities and past moments of their everyday lives. If one interprets landscape as a vast space in which life is reflected, then interiors are also integrated under the concept of landscape. In his portfolio “Am Mühlenkamp” Berges shows seven motifs from his series of images created in 2004/05, which were taken in the former studio of the artist couple Bernd and Hilla Becher some time after they moved. The portfolio will be shown for the first time in the current exhibition.

Peter Downsbrough (Brussels): The work “Longvilliers”, presented in three photographs, a book – and for the current exhibition Two Pipes installed in the room – documents an artistic intervention by Downsbough in a monotonous stretch of land. On April 6, 1974, the artist set up two long pipes, comparable to water pipes from the hardware store, along the French departmental road D27 from Longvilliers towards Rochefort-en-Yveslines in the Île-de-France region. The pipes are transformed into a temporary, inconspicuous sculpture that causes a memorable disruption in the familiar landscape. The photographs alone give this ephemeral sculpture permanence and documentation.

Gerry Johansson (Strandbaden, Sweden): His black and white photographs are characterized by a strong graphic clarity. They are consistently visual explorations of regions that are considered rather unspectacular. The portfolio "Coast to Coast" contains 10 gelatin silver contact prints, which he created in 1983 for the first time with a large format camera in 8 x 10 inch (20 x 25 cm) format. He devoted himself to a wide range of subjects, from succinct kitchen furnishings to the vastness of the American landscape with both typical and curious constellations.

Francesco Neri (Faenza, Italy): Neri's photographic series are dedicated to his home region of northern Italy. Despite their documentary quality, they have a particularly credible and authentic effect. The currently presented portfolio "Wooden Tool Shed" shows an example of his series of sheds that he took with his large format camera in the countryside, and which retain their charm and rustic aesthetics through their improvised, economical construction. Finally, and typical for his work the genre of the portrait comes into play again and again. Occasionally, the owners of the small buildings are also photographed.

Mark Ruwedel (Long Beach, USA): The landscape is Ruwedel’s top priority. His photographs, which he took in deserted areas, are objective, pure and extremely detailed. American deserts, landscapes that have been used and abused by people, where nuclear tests are carried out or, more harmlessly, perhaps crossed by traffic routes. The landscape can no longer be thought of as a natural landscape; it is not only cultivated, but also threatened. Devastating fires in California have been feared for decades. The ruins of burnt trees photographed by Ruwedel are memorials to a world at risk.

Jem Southam (Exeter, Great Britain): The series of images “The Pond at Upton Pyne” is shown in the current exhibition in an excerpt of six color photographs in the form of analog contact prints based on 8 x 10 inch (20 x 25 cm) negative material. It is an exemplary work that provides insight into Southam’s specific way of looking at landscape. He is entirely devoted to the signs of civilization, the basic conditions and the changes that have occurred over time. The pond, which had been developed because of a manganese mine that was operated there in the 18th century, was transformed between 1996 and 2002. Residents worked on that quite small piece of land. Southam follows their visions and footsteps as well as the influences of nature and its seasons.

John Spinks (London): The portfolio offers an insight into Spinks' project “Harrowdown Hill”, a visual exploration of a piece of woodland located in the county of Oxfordshire, 100 kilometers from London. Spinks spent a year scouring the area with a large-format camera, creating landscape images empty of people, whose atmosphere is characterized above all by the effects of the weather and seasons. However, the unreserved contemplation of the photos is interrupted as soon as we learn that the body of scientist David Kelly was found in this forest in 2003. The biological warfare expert and UN inspector had accused the British government of falsifying data to justify the invasion of Iraq, which led to the Second Gulf War. The cause of death remained unknown.

"Otto volte due“, a cassette with two photographs each by eight photographers, including Nicola Baldazzi, Alessandra Dragoni, Cesare Fabbri, Marcello Galvani, Francesca Gardini, Guido Guidi, Franceso Neri and Luca Nostri. All of the contributors come from the Italian Romagna region, are largely networked with one another and pursue related questions and aesthetics. In their photographs, they are repeatedly concerned with comparability, minimal changes and a coordinated color scheme. Image factors that they explore using motifs found in everyday life, on the streets and in the countryside. The renowned photographer Guido Guidi has been a central key and a great source of inspiration for the other seven. His two pictures can be seen as a prototypical example for a study of perception. The same place appears, the same light, the difference is: On the right with and on the left without a person. How do I read pictures? Which factors change effect, meaning and interpretation? These seem to be the fundamental questions of all the works in this cassette.