Re-Visions. On the Documentary in the Work of Michael Schmidt
︎︎︎ Ph.D. project (2019–2025)
The oeuvre of the Berlin-based photographer Michael Schmidt (1945–2014) is regarded as both monumental and uncompromising. Spanning five decades, his body of work encompasses numerous series and book publications and is characterised by a wide range of thematic and formal approaches. One constant, however, is his sustained interrogation of photography as an artistically conceptual and socially critical medium through which he examined socio-political developments from the post-war period and German division to reunification and a globalised Europe.
This dissertation investigates Schmidt’s work as a continuous engagement with the possibilities of the documentary. Drawing on six key series as well as extensive archival research, it demonstrates how Schmidt adopts, challenges, pushes to the limits, or even negates documentary photographic procedures. The title Re-Visions alludes to the inner dynamism that is characteristic of Schmidt’s photography. It refers to his persistent search for an approach capable of capturing and negotiating social realities as well as historical upheavals. This vision also implies revision as a reflective engagement with his own visual means and with the conditions and functions of documentary practice.
The dissertation was undertaken in close collaboration with the Michael Schmidt Archive. It was supervised by Prof. Dr. Steffen Siegel, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen and Prof. Dr. Andrés Mario Zervigón, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Research topics focus on the history and theory of photography, the urban history of Berlin in relation to contemporary German history, including urban development, labour migration, memory culture, and image politics after 1945.
This dissertation investigates Schmidt’s work as a continuous engagement with the possibilities of the documentary. Drawing on six key series as well as extensive archival research, it demonstrates how Schmidt adopts, challenges, pushes to the limits, or even negates documentary photographic procedures. The title Re-Visions alludes to the inner dynamism that is characteristic of Schmidt’s photography. It refers to his persistent search for an approach capable of capturing and negotiating social realities as well as historical upheavals. This vision also implies revision as a reflective engagement with his own visual means and with the conditions and functions of documentary practice.
The dissertation was undertaken in close collaboration with the Michael Schmidt Archive. It was supervised by Prof. Dr. Steffen Siegel, Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen and Prof. Dr. Andrés Mario Zervigón, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
Research topics focus on the history and theory of photography, the urban history of Berlin in relation to contemporary German history, including urban development, labour migration, memory culture, and image politics after 1945.
“Wir müssen imaginieren”, Fotogeschichte, Nr. 159, 2021, S. 49-55.
︎︎︎ Conversation with Erdmut Wizisla on Bertolt Brecht, Michael Schmidt and working with archival materials
Michael Schmidt: Photographs 1965–2014, hg. v. Stiftung für Fotografie und Medienkunst mit Archiv Michael Schmidt, Ausst.-Kat., London Koenig Books 2020.
︎︎︎ Extensive scientific bibliografie
︎︎︎ Extensive scientific bibliografie