COLOGNE, GERMANY.- The Ludwig Museum presents What does the Jellyfish want? Photographs from Man Ray to James Coleman, on view through July 15, 2007. What does the jellyfish want? This question was raised by artist Christopher Williams during an interview in which he explained why he finds this aquatic creature so fascinating: with no shape, no skeleton, and no sex, the jellyfish is a creature without properties. As such this denizen of the seas is a metaphor for photography in contemporary art and acts as motto for the exhibition: What is Photography? Copy of reality or data source to be altered as desired? Documentation or staged image? Found footage or elaborately made exposure? With its three historical references back to the avant-garde at the dawn of the 20th century, the exhibition shows the current developments in photography and their traditions.

The exhibition has been divided up to include a historical review, which presents Surrealist photography around Man Ray, the photographs, photogrammes and collages of the Constructivists such as László Moholy-Nagy and A.M. Rodchenko, as well as August Sander’s “Man of the Twentieth Century”. These early approaches will be juxtaposed with current works, which will be grouped chronologically to underline the major steps forward in contemporary art photography. These include for instance the rediscovery of photography in the context of actionism and concept art during the 1970s. Photography was not simply used to document the course of an action, but actively integrated into the work as an element in its own right, with actions often only being performed solely before the lens. In the context of Conceptual art, photography was used simply to record what was formulated by the concept. The result was chance exposures that led to small, simply-made books that were perceived at that time as deliberately amateurish.

By the late 1970s a new development can be discerned - away from photographic portrayals of reality to a reflection on and reinvention of existing photographic images. Cindy Sherman for instance staged film stills from non-existent films, making her photographs seem like copies without an original.

In the last ten years documentarism has been rediscovered as a specifically artistic avenue. The fundamental claim of visualising reality visible through photographs, and of thus exploring and analyzing it is now also asserted by artists who, like Andreas Gursky, process the photographic material on the computer.

Already by the mid-1970s, Museum Ludwig was the first art museum to point the way when it acquired the Gruber Collection along with pivotal works of contemporary photography by artists such as Bruce Nauman, Dennis Oppenheim, Douglas Huebler, Bernd and Hilla Becher – to name a few. Since then, the collection has undergone continual expansion in order to chart the overall development of art photography and to bring it right up to the moment. The collection’s historical treasures will be presented together with its latest acquisitions.

List of Artists: Robert Adams, Eugène Atget, John Baldessari, Thomas Bayrle, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Anna and Bernhard Johannes Blume, Mel Bochner, Joachim Brohm, James Coleman, Ger Dekkers, Jan Dibbets, William Eggleston, Valie Export, Hans Peter Feldmann, Lee Friedlander, Albrecht Fuchs, Gilbert & George, Andreas Gursky, Jitka Hanzlova, Florence Henri, Candida Höfer, Douglas Huebler, Sanja Iveković, André Kertész, Jürgen Klauke, Louise Lawler, Jean LeGac, Jochen Lempert, Barry Le Va, Dr. Manfred Leve, Sherrie Levine, Sol LeWitt, Gordon Matta-Clark, Boris Mikhailov, László Moholy-Nagy, Robert Morris, Bruce Nauman, Gabriele and Helmut Nothhelfer, Dennis Oppenheim, Peter Piller, Man Ray, Alexander Rodchenko, Thomas Ruff, Ed Ruscha, August Sander, Gregor Schneider, Ursula Schulz-Dornburg, Cindy Sherman, Robert Smithson, Thomas Struth, Wolfgang Tillmans, Jeff Wall, Robert Watts, Stephen Wilks, Stephen Willats, Christopher Williams, and David Wojnarowicz.

A richly illustrated and comprehensive catalogue will be published by Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, containing articles by Bodo von Dewitz, Barbara Engelbach, Herbert Molderings and Herta Wolf.