Hein Gorny in the Spectrum Photogalerie, Hanover, 1972

Hein Gorny, Heinrich Riebesehl

The spectrum Photogalerie in Hanover, founded in 1972, dedicated its first exhibition to the photographer Hein Gorny (1904 – 1967). Forty years later, Collection Regard has created an exhibition on the exhibition with photographs by Hein Gorny and Heinrich Riebesehl, who guided the production of the works exhibited. It is an homage to the founders of the spectrum, Heinrich Riebesehl, Joachim Giesel and Peter Gauditz, whose gallery was an ‘enterprise with a purely idealistic purpose’ (Riebesehl) intended to raise photography as an independent pictorial medium to ‘a higher status in society’ (Gauditz). The retrospective on Gorny has a special position among their exhibitions: it was the only project for which the organisers used a photographer’s archives. Today, it is possible to compare the exhibits with Gorny’s vintage prints, which were then thought to be lost. This comparison gives the present exhibition its particular photographic appeal, and may motivate a rediscovery of the œuvre of Hein Gorny.