Conscientious

I also find this extremely frustrating. I am currently studying art history, and have a specific interest in German photgraphy - but I can't find anything written by German photographers. Only Americans seem willing to commit their thoughts to paper. I wonder if you could point me towards any writing by German photographers, even if it's in German?

Thanks
Tom

Well, Tom, I am probably not a good person to ask since I am as cut off from German writing as you are - there is not much online. When I'm in Germany I buy Photonews, so if you can find a place that has an archive of those that would be a good place to start.

if your interested in seeing german photography and happen to be in the Boston aera, starting july 2nd, the mfa will have a german show. artists include andreas gurskey, thomas ruff, candida hoffer, thomas streuth and more. should be outstanding

Jörg, to be quite fair: the list of interviews in Photonews you cited is from a series on photographic education in Germany. Which is why they are all professors and the instituions are listed.

Tom, are you looking for writings by photographers themselves on their work or just anyone? Who are you looking for specifically?

On a somewhat related note: I've recently been wondering which US photographers deal with the aesthetics and possibilities of the digital. It's pretty obvious for Germany, with Thomas Ruff, Jörg Sasse, Michael Reisch, Beate Gütschow and others. Now I do know German photography better, but I couldn't think of many from the US. Chris Jordan came to my mind, and of course Gregory Crewdson and (Canadian) Jeff Wall couldn't create their work without digital montage. But Chris Jordan's recent work is not very photographic anymore and what Wall and Crewdson use the digital for is rather basic in the end, the bigger part of their work happens in front of the camera after all. On the other hand side almost all of the newer successful photographers from the US that I can think of right now are heavily inspired by 70s large format color photography. Even those (like the great Alec Soth) who use the internet as a platform.
This is not thought to be the rather boring digital vs analogue debate that seems omnipresent in the internet. I'm just interested whether that is a wrong subjective impression or whether there really is little occupation with the digital in the US photo world.

If you could name a few photographers who deal with this, I would be more than glad. Maybe it's just the little known names.

I stick with what I wrote about the list of interviews. It serves as a neat example for how Germans approach hierarchies. And mentioning that the interviews are about photographic education makes things a bit worse. It's a well-known fact that in Germany, students and professors often have very little - if any - interaction, a situation vastly different from the US, where a professor who avoids talking to his students (something I encountered many, many times as a student in Germany) would be in trouble.

Philip - I was looking firstly for writing by photographers themselves, but really, any German photography criticism would be a start

Okay, maybe one could get rid of the title. But I don't think it has a real influence on photographic education. You don't even need to habilitate to obtain it when teaching art if I'm correct.

Why does it make things worse mentioning that those articles are about education? I bet they wouldn't name the instituions if it wasn't. And when writing about the work of an artist the title Professor is very seldom used.

Considering ineraction with the students I've come across very different behavior than what you described. We see our teachers usually at least once a week. No one calls them professor and relations are personal. Some we even call by forename. And it's not like we wouldn't talk to the teachers. In fact, talking about our work is the biggest part of the most courses. Pure lectures are very rare.

In case this didn't come across before: I totally agree with your view on the lack of use of the internet as a medium of interaction in the German photo world.

But the hierarchical structures you mentioned I haven't got to know yet. There is a lot to criticize about the German educational system but fortunately in art education it is a lot better than in science.

Have you written in the past about the weird world of flickr? I'd be curious to hear what you have to say about it..

Hey Tom,
sorry for not answering earlier, I had problems logging in.
A good place to start are always books and catalogues. Besides essays I know of quite a few who feature extensive interviews. Then there's photo-specific magazines like Photonews, Eikon and Camera Austria and of course general art magazines (e.g. Kunstforum, Texte zur Kunst etc). As Jörg said Germany hasn't quite arrived in the digital world yet, so checking the library will be a good idea.
If you need any more help or if you have a specific artist in mind let me know.

Actually I just looked around a bit (very superficially) and I found quite a lot of material.
While it's examples may be a bit random in places this I think can provide a good starting point, especially the links it provides.
http://www.goethe.de/kue/bku/dos/dfh/enindex.htm

Thanks for your advice Philip. I wonder if any of the Dusseldorfers have written in any detail about their work or their ideas? I have a specific project about writing by photographers since 1960 and wanted to focus on that group of artists. I will have a look at the Goethe Institute's site too.

Took me quite a while once again, sorry for that.
Here are some texts on and by Thomas Ruff and Jörg Sasse:
http://ruffklasse.de/seite2.html (click T. Ruff)
http://www.c42.de/textmain.php (be sure to check out both the German and English sections, they overlap only partially).

„Heute bis jetzt“ from Schirmer/Mosel is the title of two books providing an overview on photographers living in Düsseldorf (not only those that studied with Bernd Becher). Might be interesting to you.

http://www.artnet.com/magazine/features/saltz/saltz12-28-99.asp
Quite an interesting comparative review of shows by Gursky and Struth that I just found.

http://www.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/kgi/archphot/gursky/gursky4.htm
List of literature with interviews and texts on Gursky.

I'm sure you will find a lot more, finding those links really wasn't much of a hassle. Catalogues should also feature bibliographies that help you for finding further (maybe more in-depth) texts.

Good luck!

I discovered through a wevsite a new American Publican call Carrie Leigh's Nude. The magazine, although American features the best fine art photographers from around the world.
The Issue that I have features two amazing German Photographers including Norbert Guthier, who has a great eight page spread. I e mailed the magazine and the response I recieved was that they select the best photographers from around the world and that they believe that Germany now produces some of the best. They also said that the December Issue features at least one or tow other German Photographers. This magazine is extremely high quality publication that is printed in black and white on print weight paper. If Norbert Guthier's work is an example of today's German Photography then I have to agree, German produces some of the best new art in the world.