Gallery noirblanche, Düsseldorf
„NEW YORK“
Group exhibition with Monika Baumgartl, Barbara Wolff, F. C. Gundlach, Walter Schels, Horst Wackerbarth
Exhibition opening Sat, October 18, 2025, 6 p.m.
„Röbel erzählt…“
– Magische Momente und die Strukturen des Ortes
From June 7 to October 12, Barbara Wolff is showing black-and-white photographs of Röbel taken over the past two years at the Röbeler Mühle in Mecklenburg.
.In her most recent projects, the Berlin photographer devoted herself to large metropolises such as Berlin and New York, where she searched for the patterns of the city: the (small) people in the (large) architecture of the city.
This way of working cannot be transferred to the small Mecklenburg town Röbel
In her search for images that document the mood and attitude to life of the small town on the Müritz, the photographer has to delve deeper: Here she finds the patterns of the town in the details of the streets, houses and nature. Barbara Wolff portrays people in relation to their surroundings. In her photographs, we also see magical moments such as the horsewomen under the ancient crown oak or the historical fencers against the backdrop of the Müritz.
The photographer finds the structures of the village in the active clubs. The group portrait of the TSV 90 dance group stands for more than just the cultivation of tradition and questions prejudices.
Part of the exhibition is also an audiovisual community project. Since August 2023, some older Röbel residents have been meeting once a month with Barbara Wolff and Sibylle Böhler, Mühle Röbel, to talk about experiences from their childhood and youth in Röbel. The exhibition covers a period from 1946 to 1989, the year of reunification, and an audio station invites visitors to immerse themselves in their personal stories. Three photo albums KINDHEIT – GEFÜHLE – STRASSE show private and public images from over 40 years of Röbel history.
(From the press release on the exhibition)
7. Juni bis 12. Oktober
Samstag, 7. Juni 15 Uhr Vernissage
Ausstellung täglich 11 bis 17 Uhr
Mühle Röbel
17207 Röbel, Mühlberg 4
https://kulturinroebel.de/
ARTE Film Documentary
The documentary film by Daniel Guthmann and Joachim Palutzki introduces two photographers who worked in the GDR and whose work has been rediscovered in recent years: Eberhard Klöppel, who grew up in Mansfelder Land and, as a press photographer for the “Neue Berliner Illustrierte”, realized many photo reportages that today offer diverse insights into the reality of people’s lives in the GDR. Dietmar Riemann from Hartha in Saxony, who became increasingly critical of the state in which he lived. In 1986, he applied to leave the country, which was not approved until 1989. During the period of waiting and uncertainty, he wrote a diary of over 1000 pages and secretly photographed the Berlin Wall and border fortifications.
In the 1970s and 1980s, Barbara Wolff, who was born in Brandenburg, documented life in the countryside and everyday village life, many aspects of which seemed archaic and timeless despite the socialist transformation of agricultural production.
The Berlin-born photographer Christiane Eisler came into contact with the punk movement in the early 1980s and portrayed one of the first punk bands in the GDR: Wutanfall, like the living conditions in the educational institutions to which young punks were forcibly committed in the 1980s.
Barbara Wolff
NEW YORK, SIDEWALK CLOSED
Black and white photographs of New York from 2023.
With an essay by Daniel Blochwitz in German and English.
After their successful “METROPOLIS, BERLIN” photo book – which received the Silver German Photo Book Award in 2021/22 – Barbara Wolff and Lunik Berlin Verlag are now presenting “NEW YORK, SIDEWALK CLOSED”, their second photo book. „NEW YORK, SIDEWALK CLOSED“ – a book that is again dedicated to one of the great cities of the world.
Barbara Wolff’s photographs were taken during a month-long stay in New York in June 2023. In almost timeless black and white photographs, Ms. Wolff shows us the New York of today, as a post-pandemic city that has risen after a dark and destructive time.
Although New York had already been much photographed, she was able to wrest her own images with a broad depth of field. Indeed, the precision of her imagery reveals many levels of New York life that goes beyond simple portrayal. Her photography reveals the dream destination of many tourists as well as the residents’ hopes and struggles for survival. Her photography reveals the dream destination of many tourists as well as the residents’ hopes and struggles for survival.
The attached captions show the locations that Ms. Wolff visited. Eingeführt werden die Bildkapitel, die das Buch gliedern, durch einen Essay von Daniel Blochwitz, der als freier Kurator und Autor mit Schwerpunkt Fotografie in der Schweiz lebt.”
(Buchvorstellung des Lunik Berlin Verlages)
Barbara Wolff: NEW YORK, SIDEWALK CLOSED
144 pages, 21 x 28 cm, 112 black and white photographs in triplex print, thread stitching,
Hardcover with linen, printed at DZA Druckerei zu Altenburg.
The book is available in four cover variants.
ISBN 978-3-9822385-1-7
Product page:
Lunik Berlin Verlag: NEW YORK, SIDEWALK CLOSED
Frankfurter Allgemeine, review, PDF
Portfolio:
NEW YORK, SIDEWALK CLOSED
