Los Angeles, USA, 2000
© Peter Lindbergh
Fourth European Month of Photography Berlin 2010
15 October to 28 November 2010
Opening ceremony 14 October, 7.00 pm, at the Berlinische Galerie
This fourth edition of the European Month of Photography Berlin presents itself as a festival in transition. This time the month of photography lasts for six weeks, starting in response to the rhythm of Berlins cultural autumn in mid-October. The biggest change however is the experiment of confronting all participating institutions with a mandatory set theme. The objective was to have all the exhibitions and events focused on a single topic, so as to make the festival more prominent in the public eye and give it a higher profile.
Modern times, new pictures is the phrase that sums it all up a theme focusing on photography as an instrument of modernisation. Museums and cultural institutions, galleries and exhibition organisers have been invited to dedicate their exhibitions to this modernising function of the photographic medium, taking different aspects into account. After all, it has long been a matter of general knowledge that photographs do more than just reproduce reality. What the camera registers, and the way in which the result is reproduced, is rather a matter of interpretation and so can be seen as the creation of new and additional realities. Several specific fields relating to this theme were proposed to participating institutions by way of example, and all these areas reappear in the festival in the form of historic, and even more importantly contemporary samples of the art.
Anyone who wishes can organise the website following these different thematic areas, or bring up a display of the outstanding highlights. For the first time the festival includes a central point in the form of the Berlinische Galerie one offering a wide range of events.
The curious visitor can expect to find pictures that are surprising and disturbing, controversial and simply breathtaking. The Fourth European Month of Photography Berlin 2010 is more than just a feast for the eye.