PARIS.- With its presentation "Düsseldorf and Photography" in the Digital Sector at Paris Photo 2025, the state capital of Düsseldorf explores the city’s photographic landscape within the shifting conditions of photography in the digital age. The project connects Düsseldorf’s historical significance as a site of photographic innovation with contemporary digital practices that expand the photographic field.

Photography has been integral to the artistic practice of Düsseldorf’s artists from an early stage and has played a decisive role in the international recognition of photography as a medium of fine art. Today, this legacy encounters new image ecologies shaped by computation, automation, and circulation. As the future home of the German Photo Institute, Düsseldorf assumes a special responsibility for advancing the dialogue on the past and future of photography.

Curators from Düsseldorf’s museums, institutions, and initiatives have recommended contemporary artistic positions with strong ties to the city, which critically engage with photography in the digital age as both medium, material, and discourse. The works span conceptual and process-based approaches, hybrid and sculptural forms, along socio-political perspectives that expand the photographic field into new aesthetic and discursive territories.

The presentation is complemented by works from international winners of the Bernd and Hilla Becher Award, as well as two limited-edition publications produced especially for Paris Photo 2025 by the photography department at Düsseldorf University of Applied Sciences / PBSA and the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Together, these contributions propose a diverse insight into contemporary photographic practices, unfold through their tension with the digital. Conceived as a shifting constellation of positions, the exhibition Düsseldorf and Photography stages a dialogue between practices that negotiate, resist, and redefine the photographic matter in the digital age.

Curators: Julika Bosch (Philara Collection) · Esther Breinig (Art and Culture Foundation of the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf) · Dr. Linda Conze (Kunstpalast) · Dr. Christoph Danelzik-Brüggemann (Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf) · Alicia Holthausen (Kunsthalle Düsseldorf) · Kim-Camille Kreuz (artist and independent curator) · Dr. Doris Krystof (Kunstsammlung NRW) · Anna Pfau (Julia Stoschek Foundation) · Pola Sieverding (düsseldorf photo+) · Mara Sporn (independent curator, Empty Spaces e.V.)

Concept and realization by: Kim-Camille Kreuz • Lola Inó Schönherr • Stephan Macháč

Project management: Stephan Macháč. Photography Coordination Office, Cultural Office Düsseldorf / Office of the Commission Photo City Düsseldorf