Michael Schmidt: 89

Schmidt first gained attention in 1984 with Berlin — Kreuzberg, a series of photographs of the neighborhood where he lives. Many of his works explore the architecture of urban landscapes, depicting apartment blocks, office buildings, and inhabitants in an austere documentary style. The meticulously composed black and white photographs, with their rich nuances, come from a number of different series, including Irgendwo, Berlin – Kreuzberg, Waffenruhe, Stadtbilder, and Berlin nach 1945. Typically Schmidt conflates architectural and landscape photographs with portraits and shots of seemingly unimportant details. Through the arrangement in groups — the interplay and dialogue between the images — individual images acquire distinct meaning and the relation between spatial environment and individual biography comes into view.