JOACHIM BROHM “Areal“ (1992-2002) 12.03. – 17.04.2004, Opening: Friday 12 March 7 p.m. In his second solo exhibition in our gallery Joachim Brohm (b. 1955) is showing his long-term photographic project ”Areal” in which he describes the transformation of a plot of land in Munich over a period of 11 years from an industrial site to a residential area. In the cycle consisting of over 300 small-format colour photographs, he depicts in a casual, yet carefully observing manner the area and the variety of things, objects and materials there from constantly changing perspectives. ”Areal” is a visually orientated topography. Overviews of the site appear, cursory glances at the ground, into the distance, at the buildings, at small details. Brohm’s camera zooms into the interim spaces, onto objects left standing or forgotten – rubbish, building material, vehicles, mislaid photos. But in fact the trivial protagonists on this public stage disappear quickly into the background, in favour of a structurally layered observation. The subject could be today’s economic change and the modification of use of once-urban industries, more general considerations about time and transience, or even just the light which alters according to the season. Brohm’s photos, however, are always characterized by a particular, individual composition and colour aesthetic. "Brohm's major long-term project is threefold. At an immediate levesl, it documents the development change of an industrial district in a post-industrial residentil and services area. Secondly, it expresses the ongoing, perpetual movement and change in which society is currently implicated, revealing the transitory, shifting nature of reality, and changes in how perception and relaity interrelate. At a third level, the project refelcts how Joachim Brohm's position as a stranger to the world, who is carefully, indeed delicately,seeking to reveal the outside world without moral judgement." (Urs Stahel) With his colour photography, in which American influences of the 70s (Stephen Shore, William Eggleston) and elements of topographical, conceptual work (Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hilla Becher) can be detected, Joachim Brohm, since 1993 Professor of Photography at the HGB Leipzig, takes an unconventional but contoured position. Constant frames of reference for his precise yet calm observation of the real, everyday environment are for example the relationship between the periphery and the core, the manifestations of leisure time in a thoroughly-organised world of consumption or perhaps the quest for beauty at the borders of production among the rubbish of progress. "Areal" has been organized by the Fotomuseum Winterthur/Switzerland and has been shown as well at Westfälischer Kunstverein Münster and Munich Stadtmuseum .The book of the same title was published by Steidl, Göttingen.

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