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photo credit: Sasha Grigg

Irina Rusinovich began her career by studying Business Management Studies at UCL London but quickly realized that her interest lay more in Arts. After college she enrolled in the fashion photography course at St. Martins during this time, she opened her photo studio in the heart of Moscow working for 4 years as a fashion photographer with designers, fashion magazines, and advertising agencies.

Her passion for art and fashion led her to found one of the first independent Magazines in Russia – Cabinet d’Art. Then 2016 came where there was a pivotal point in Irina’s career. She was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy in Berlin, Germany. She sold her business in Russia and moved with her family to Berlin permanently.

After two years of falling out of work, she decided to return to her passion – Arts and enrolled in a curator certificate course at Berliner UdK and a course at Sotheby’s in Art Gallery Management. During this time one of her dreams came true and HAZEGALLERY opened its doors in October 2019. Since then Irina continuously developing and became not only an art dealer but also a curator, writer, and “coach” to her roster of artists. Irina seeks artists who have a strong combination of passion. Talent and drive.

What type of work do you show?

We show a lot of abstraction and figurative. I also have artists who do graphics, photography, and sculpture.

How do you go about finding new artists?

We are a staff of 3, so there is a limit to the number of artists I can represent. We participate in art fairs and that is a great way to find new talent. However much of how I find artists is by word of mouth.

What questions do you ask yourself when you are considering a new artist?

I am looking for innovative and conceptually rigorous work. I am also looking for practice. I ask myself: Do I see the artist pushing her/his practice in a new different direction? Is he/she extending her practice? I like to include the artist in a group show or two to see how it is to work with him first. According to my experience personal relationship that is what matters in the end.

What do you expect from the artist once they join your roster?

Showing in a gallery is serious business and it is not for everyone. To stay on the roster, my artists must step up to the commitment and continuously grow in their field. We need to have a conversation about their work that involves criticism and honest dialogue. I also expect commitment to the gallery from their side.

What do you take into consideration when pricing the work of your artists?

This is a very important topic! If artists have sold their art out of the studio for 1500Euro, then we start with the price and take it from there. It is important to keep the price reasonable to sell not to overprice and not sell. Once you go up you cannot go down! There are the following markers to raise the prices: a big show at a gallery, a museum show, or an acquisition by a museum would be a good point.

What advice would you give those who want to work with galleries?

Keep your CV, BIO, and artists statement to the point. Go to gallery shows, introduce yourself to the gallery owner and tell them you like what they do. Ask the gallery owner for a studio visit. Go to the openings! Curate and organize your shows! Invite people to come, invite gallery owners to come!

Interview by Irina Rusinovich

Tell me about yourselves. What background are you coming from?

Daria Vankova:

I bring brands to the Metaverse. Our agency creates a strategy for transition to the virtual worlds and implements it. I also develop blockchain-related projects. I came into this field from PR, which I did for 12 years. I believe that metaverses are an amazing new communication channel for the future. We will all be there, as we once were registered on social networks.

Nadia Vesna:

I’m a digital strategist for brands and products, soft skills evangelist and people manager. During my professional sabbatical I invested my time for education, one of the fields became web3 in NFT Academy to empower my digital comms knowledge. 

Now I’m also a co-founder of the Pink Metaverse October.

Julia Tet:

I am an independent curator and producer of creative industries projects, artist for the soul, the founder of ARTTET project with the mission to unite creative minds through cultural diplomacy and artistic cooperation. Now investigating web3.0 opportunities and believe that new technologies can now really make a significant contribution to the development of the modern world.

Maria Vatset:

I am a full-stack developer who has recently taken a deep interest in WEB3 technologies from smart contracts to metaverses. Then I started working with Daria to merge marketing and web technologies. Currently, I am actively promoting the Web3 story to the masses and collaborating with large companies. In December 2022, I organized a conference in St. Petersburg focused on blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and metaverses from a scientific perspective

Nadia Vesna

Daria Vankova

Maria Vatset

Julia Tet

How did you come up with the idea of developing the PINK OCTOBER Project?

Daria:

Nadia was looking for Web 3.0 project about breast cancer. It turned out there were no such projects and I suggested we do it ourselves because this topic is very close and important to me. I’ve faced cancer in my family, my friends died of cancer, and I understand the importance of education on the subject. The more you know, the earlier you discover the disease. Knowledge increases the chances of recovery.

Nadia:

There are 3 factors. First: I’m volunteering for the local BY #againstbreastcancer fund named “Touch with hands”. Second: as a digital manager I have my private blog “Beznadezhnoe poznanie”, which makes me famous among colleagues and friends as an expert in web2 and web 3 skills (that’s why Alla contacted me). The third: I studied at NFT Academy. 

The story in short: Alla Aloe, the founder of the TWH fund, asked me to create a post for their Instagram about how Web 3.0. tools increase awareness about breast cancer as if i made it for my blog. I found nothing across all metaverses and NFT collections. Then I asked for help from my classmates from NFT Academy and found Dasha! She said: let’s do it together! Her response was crucial for the project. 

Julia:

This year I decided to devote myself to the exploration of new opportunities of web 3.0. I took a course at NFT Academy and was looking for projects where I could combine my experience in Arts and creative industries, explore how web 3.0 could work, and also how new tools could make a real useful impact for the world. My request to the Universe was heard 🙂 We started to cooperate with Dasha. I saw her post about the open call for the Pink Metaverse Exhibition, appreciated the concept, and decided to join the project.  

What were the stages of forming a team?

Daria: Masha joined the project from the very beginning, and Julia joined a week later; her experience in working with artists is important to us.

What are the main obstacles you are facing? And what are the ways to overcome them?

Daria: Lack of time. This is a charity and we all do it in our spare time, however we have great plans for this year and the project is my priority now. Perhaps another thing is people’s fear of the topic of cancer. Cancer is ugly and not Instagrammable. We try to talk about it in a way that doesn’t make people uncomfortable. But a lot of people are afraid of cancer, avoid thinking about it in every way possible.

Nadia: Huge amount of information and the sensitiveness of the topic. It was very important for me not to make mistakes, proofread all facts we communicated and project stages with experts (medical workers and volunteers).

Julia: The new field requires a full immersion and a detailed study of the specifics, and everything is changing very rapidly there, and you must always keep your hand on the pulse, sometimes move by intuition, constantly learning something new. So for me there is very often an imposter syndrome in the air. But I believe that the road takes the walker. 

Maria: The main difficulties are imperfections of the metaverses, each metaverse has its own limitations. For example, we decided to hold our first exhibition in Roblox, because there are the most active users there, but Roblox has pretty strict censorship and many of the paintings sent to the opencall didn’t pass it. In the future, we plan to hold „Pink October“ lectures already in other metaverses, since Roblox has quite a narrow functionality to realize it.

Why did you decide to go for METAVERSE? Why is it important?

Daria: There are many reasons for this. There’s a lot of hype around the Metaverse, and this is a great opportunity for us. In addition, the metaverses allow us to not be limited by space or time. We’re doing an international project. We gathered artists from different countries. Everyone who has a smartphone and internet can come to the exhibition and learn more about breast cancer. There are online events and an auction coming up. Unlike offline activities, our audience is the whole world.

Nadia: It’s a great new channel with a huge audience (mostly young). So why not? In this case the more we speak – the better.

Julia: Now the Metaverse is a whole new round of human interaction, and we are at a tipping point where the world is changing dramatically. Metaverse is not only a tool or a space where people could communicate but also a new philosophy where the main voice belongs to the community, not to the Government or the Company. And this creates a real value to act for each person. I think each project in Metaverse should have some particular valuable mission. It’s like an opportunity to build independent communes united by some particular ideas – we are moving to the future by inheriting the past. In our case it’s the idea to prevent cancer that is still a big problem in the modern world. Metaverse is also a network for young generations who are the future. 

Maria: The metaverse not only enables us to access virtual spaces from any location of the world , but it also expands our perception through immersion. With just a smartphone, users can experience this for themselves. I believe that the hype surrounding metaverses is warranted, and this technology will continue to evolve and have practical applications in the future.

How do you prioritize and delegate tasks in your project? Who does what?

Daria: Nadia is responsible for marketing, our website, community management and the main concept of the project, Julia for curation of the exhibition and events concepts, partnership development of the project, and Masha for the technical part. I am responsible for the business part. Everyone helps everyone, though. At the moment we have a targetologist and a designer. The project is growing and new tasks arise.

Julia: The structure of our project is very similar to the turquoise economy: everyone herself determines the area of her own responsibility. When issues arise, we discuss solutions as a team, and decide who is responsible for the next step. This is probably the most effective model for implementing projects in web 3.0, but here at the same time there is a serious challenge that you have to be a really high professional in your field for the project to move successfully.

Do you use any tools to plan your project?

Nadia: As a manager-freak, I used kanban and always wrote MFU after each meeting to create new tasks. But I never insisted on the team to join me, it’s my professional peculiarities  – i can’t live without a task-manager 🙂 

How do you handle conflict within your team?

Daria: I don’t think we’ve had a single conflict yet. But I think the main thing is to know who is responsible for what. Everyone has an opinion, but the final decision is made by the one whose area of responsibility is the issue.

Nadia: Trusted and open communication is the best way to negotiate. 

Julia: The best way to handle a conflict is to discuss the reasons. But it’s true, by this point we haven’t had any conflicts. And that means that everything is going right.

How is it to work remotely? What difficulties do you face?

Daria: Perhaps the main difficulty is the time zone difference. As for remotely work, the covid pandemic has taught us that an office is not necessarily a prerequisite for productive teamwork. Major companies are opening their offices in Metaverses. So it’s not a problem for us to work online. 

I think remote is the new standard. We are all accustomed to it now. Even though the time zones are different our team faced no problems. Right colleagues? 

Julia: Yes, indeed, we now have fewer and fewer distance-related constraints thanks to technology. By the way, Metaverse offers brilliant solutions on this subject. People say Metaverse is the Internet of the future, where there is no concept of remote work, because we are all in the space of the Metaverse.

Describe your experience in this industry.

Daria: I decided to create a project with Nadia, rather because Metaverses is my professional field, and I am sure that I can do good by combining my experience with the experience of the team.

Nadia: I’m not much into metaverses. That’s why I fully trust Dasha and Maria. I have the NFT collection of my 35mm film photoshoots but just as an experiment, to understand the tool and the new digital channels. 

Julia: As I have already said, so far I am more of an explorer and observer than an activist in this sphere. However, thanks to the Pink Metaverse project, a great start has already been made. Now I am also working on another project with the mission to unite people in the art industry from all over the world. But that’s another story 🙂 

Maria: I frequently engage in creating, discussing, and spending time in metaverses 🙂  But this is the first time I’m launching a charity project

What are your favorite and least favorite technology products, and why?

Daria: The word of the year is «Neural network». ChatGPT, which creates texts, and MidJorney, which creates visuals, are insanely popular right now. These are incredibly handy tools that optimize content generation processes. Neural networks also have great opportunities in metaverses. Instead of having a real person in their avatar interacting with visitors to a virtual bank or boutique there, it will be possible to program a self-learning bot that will take over the main negotiations. And while today a chatbot is most often a small set of standard questions and answers, in the future its possibilities are limitless.

How do you think technology advances will impact the art industry?

Daria: First of all, digital art is now as valued as classical art. It is also collected, exhibited, sold. Secondly, Artificial Intelligence is coming to the aid of artists and designers. Contrary to popular opinion, I don’t think that Ai can replace creators. Rather, it will become a great tool in their hands.

Julia: I think that technology will affect the development of the Art industry only in a positive way and in no way will replace humanity in this sphere. There is a great deal of discourse about this aspect right now. But it’s all about our own choices: technology can be used as an additional tool to create, promote and sell Arts, as well to make the industry more open and diverse. Technology could help to solve some operational processes regarding Arts, thereby giving creators more freedom concerning the creative process itself. The question is how creators and managers could use this opportunity and manage the creative process with the involvement of technology.

Maria: In my opinion, technology will shape the concept of how art will be created, transmitted and perceived in the future. Artificial intelligence will be used more often to create paintings, blockchain to authenticate art, and metaverse to expand the perception of paintings at exhibitions.

What are the marks of a successful project do you think?

Daria: Involvement of people

Nadia: Visible and strict set of goals which are matters for each member of the team. It helps to construct the synergy within the team. While the team is the key success of each project. 

Julia: Successful achievement of the project’s mission and following the plan, positive feedback from the people involved, project sustainability. 

Maria: Effective resource management. In our case, resources mean people and technologies.

Tell us the main dates of your project so our followers will keep them in mind!

Daria: Until January 30, there will be a sale of the New Year NFT collection, the proceeds of which we will donate to a charity project from Minsk. In February, we have open lectures in the Metaverse. In October there will be a big charity auction. You can find the project’s Roadmap on our website.

Subscribe to official project sources:
Instagram: @pinkmetaverseoctober
Facebook: @Pink Metaverse October
Twitter: @pinkoctobermeta
Discord: https://discord.gg/zHh3hbQH 

project site: https://pinkmetaverseoctober.com/
visit Pink Metaverse Exhibition in Roblox:
https://www.roblox.com/games/11826168178/Pink-Metaverse-October 

link to Pink Metaverse Collection:
buy charity NFT till 30th of January!
https://opensea.io/collection/pinkxmas

Thank you for taking the time to interview! We are glad to welcome you to PURPLE HAZE magazine. Before asking questions about gallery, I would like to know more about you as the director and founder of the gallery.

Tell us a little about yourself. At what point did you become interested in photography? What inspired you to create a gallery? 

Robert Morat, Photo by: Roger Eberhard

Please tell us about the concept of the gallery. How does the selection of photo artists take place? How was the visual language of the gallery created? 

Bill Jacobson and Giorgio Morandi „Photographs and Drawings“ at the Berlin gallery space, spring 2018. Photo by: Roger Eberhard

Bill Jacobson and Giorgio Morandi „Photographs and Drawings“ at the Berlin gallery space, spring 2018. Photo by: Roger Eberhard

At what point, in your opinion, was the adoption of photography as an art form? 

Photography has always allowed not only for the realistic description of reality, but also for it’s subjective, creative interpretation. Ever since the surrealist Man Ray put the sound holes of a Cello on to the back of his female model in 1924, photography has been an art form. MoMA started collecting photography in 1930. Photography has always been an art form. Just because there are people that have not caught up, doesn’t change the fact.

What influence has photography had on the development of modern art? 

When the French painter Eugène Delacroix saw the first heliography in the late 1820ies, he famously exclaimed: This is the end of Art! History has proven him wrong. On the contrary, the accurate representation of the world through photography has freed painting from the need to be realistic. Film, developed from photography, has become the most important art form of the modern age.  So the influence of photography not only on Modern Art, but on the way we communicate today, can not be overstated.

Solo Booth for Hannah Hughes at PHOTO LONDON 2022

Robert Morat Galerie was established in 2004. How has the art market changed since that time? What difficulties are gallery owners, artists, photographers experiencing in Berlin at the moment? 

The art market has always been a very volatile market, following economic cycles. When we started out in 2004, the stars of the Becher School, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth, Candida Höfer broke through internationally. Contemporary photography out of German was in high demand all of a sudden – we were lucky to start out in that environment. The years 2005, 2006, 2007 saw a strong high point of international art dealing. But just 12 months later, November 2008 saw the Lehman Brother’s crash and the international fiscal crises that the implosion of the American housing market caused. The following years, 2009, 2010, were difficult, many galleries closed, the market was down. But eventually it picked up again. Gallery owners and artists always had to deal with that volatility. Or take last year, we had just come out of two pandemic years, the market just started to pick up when Russia started it’s criminal, shameful war in Ukraine. It felt like somebody pulled the plug. All sales stopped on February 24. What followed was another difficult season. But then in fall, things came around, the market picked uo again, the winter season was extremely successful. It feels like a rollercoaster ride mostly.

Works by Jessica Backhaus, Hannah Hughes and Bill Jacobson at our booth at PARIS PHOTO 2022

Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer are a Swiss artist duo, the latest addition to the gallery program. „Artefakte und Modelle“ is their first exhibition with us, a series of still life studies. The project is a collection of objects that embody the human struggle for knowledge. Over twelve years in the making and numbering hundreds of images, the project inventories the models, artifacts, natural specimen and teaching objects that the two women have unearthed traveling to search through the archives and collections of European universities and natural history museums. Dutch art historian Flor Linckens calls it “a series of enigmatic and decontextualized objects that are given a new life” and in her review of the work she writes: “Elements from science, advertising, religion, art and nature are isolated and combined effortlessly in what could be described as encyclopedic cabinets of curiosities. In the work of Amuat and Meyer, the past and the present enter into a new relationship.”

Lena Amuat & Zoë Meyer, Mathematisches Modell #138, 2017

What are you, Robert Morat Galerie, aiming for in the future? 

To stay on board the rollercoaster a little longer!

The exhibition “Artefakte und Modelle” by Lena Amuat und Zoë Meyer will be held at the Robert Morat Gallerie until February 25, 2023.

Text: I r i n a  R u s i n o v i c h

Benjamin Kühnemund, Berlin, 2022, copyright Nadine Dinter, courtesy HAZEGALLERY

Ben, Berlin 2022, copyright Nadine Dinter, courtesy HAZEGALLERY

Traegi, Cologne, 2022, copyright Nadine Dinter, courtesy HAZEGALLERY

How did you come up with the idea for the exhibition?
In 2012, I curated a photo show for the New York artist duo The Hilton Brothers. One of them was Christopher Makos, a longtime friend of Andy Warhol who documented his life in photographs. Of course, during our work together and in most of his interviews, he spoke about Andy Warhol. Part of his travel crew was the former erotic art model Benjamin Godfre, with whom I clicked pretty quickly, chatting about LA, photography, and Warhol. We especially loved Warhol’s series Torsos and decided to take some pictures together. The rest is history.

What theme do you pursue in this exhibition?
In my show Torso Reloaded, I explore male nudes and how the current generation stages and adorns itself.Over the course of four months (January to April 2022), I photographed six young men, asking them to take poses that seemed typical for their personality and profession. They include a slick skater, a professional model,a wrestler, a photographer, and a fitness trainer. The images I took of Godfre from 2012 are also included in the show.

What is your favorite piece of artwork in the exhibition, and why?
That’s impossible for me to say – I love them all – and each one is special in its own way.

How could you tell when this series was finished?
It was finished this spring, in April 2022.

Do you have a funny or interesting story from your work on this project?
One of the 2022 models has the logo of my all-time favorite band HIM, tattooed above his crotch – it was a nice coincidence, as I discovered that only after we started to shoot. You can see some of those images in the show, too.

Benjamin Godfre, 1, Berlin, 2012, copyright Nadine Dinter, courtesy HAZEGALLERY

Eric, Berlin 2022, copyright Nadine Dinter, courtesy HAZEGALLERY

Alexander Schuktuew, Berlin 2022, copyright Nadine Dinter, courtesy HAZEGALLERY

Where can I go to see more of your work?
Most works, also from other series plus all my travel impressions, can be found on my IG account @dinterphotography. I also recently created a little website with more information about myself, my photography background, and the different series. Feel free to visit www.dinterphotography.de

Dr. Matthias Harder, director and curator of the Helmut Newton Foundation, photo David von Becker

Text: L y u b o v  M e l n i c k o w a

Thank you for taking the time to interview! We are glad to welcome you to PURPLE HAZE magazine. Before asking questions about Helmut Newton Foundation, I would like to know more about you as the director and curator HNF.

Tell us a little about yourself. How did you come to be a curator?

My path was almost classical, but also playful. While still studying art history at the Free University of Berlin, I specialized in the medium of photography, wrote my master’s and doctoral theses on photographic subjects, which was still somewhat exotic at the time, in the 1990s. In 1995 I started organizing parallel photo exhibitions in Berlin at the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst (NGBK), and I opened an off-space in Berlin for all artistic media, with a focus on installation art. In 2000 I became guest curator at the Munich Photomuseum and co-curated the retrospectives of Herbert List and Stefan Moses, which subsequently toured internationally for years, which I partly accompanied. Afterwards I directed an art association near Hamburg for almost two years, then in early 2004 I joined the Helmut Newton Foundation, which had just been founded by Newton in Berlin – and stayed until today.

Dr. Matthias Harder, director and curator of the Helmut Newton Foundation, photo David von Becker

When did you first encounter the work of Helmut Newton?

I was already interested in photography as a teenager, I took photographs myself, I had my own darkroom – and it was also the time I encountered Newton’s great works, almost automatically. Thus, I bought the two Newton publications „Portraits“ and „Big Nudes“ relatively early, of course without suspecting that I would later get to present his original photographs in many international exhibitions and write about them.

Personally, do you have a favorite work HN and why this particular work?

It’s probably hard for anyone to name favorite works by Helmut Newton, because he created so many extraordinary and iconic images and shaped our visual collective memory as few other colleagues have. Personally, of course, I know far more of Newton’s photographs than the average exhibition visitor, as I have been working intensively with his archive, which is housed in our foundation, for the past 18 years. If I had to pick just one motif from his three main genres, however, I would name the double portrait of David Lynch and Isabella Rossellini from 1988, because it psychologically congenially condenses the ambivalence of their relationship, and „Arielle after Haircut“ from 1982, because it is one of the most sensual pictures I know, and „16th Arrondissement“ a fashion photograph for French Vogue from 1975, which looks like a snapshot, but as always was perfectly composed and staged by Newton, with the two models also playing their roles magnificently.

„Someone’s photos are art. But not mine. If they are ever going to be exhibited in a gallery or museum, I don’t mind. But that’s not why I make them. I am a gun for hire!“ What do you think is the uniqueness of Helmut Newton’s works?

Newton explored the possibilities of the medium of photography like no other and transcended genre boundaries, first and foremost with his fashion stagings in timeless elegance. Innovative in all aspects of his work, Newton became famous for his spectacular photographs of clothed and unclothed women, with which he also succeeded in pushing existing taboo boundaries. The countless publications of his fashion and nude photographs in the most renowned international magazines also reflect the changes in the social role of women in the second half of the 20th century in the Western world. In Newton’s work, it is often unclear where reality ends and staging begins; everything becomes a confusing game of power and seduction. With his sometimes radical, but also subtly elegant images of women, Helmut Newton was often ahead of the zeitgeist – and at the same time helped to shape it for decades.

What brought you to the Helmut Newton Foundation?

We met in Berlin in December 2003, arranged through a mutual acquaintance, and we had a very good talk for hours. Newton told me about his plans for the foundation and, at the end of the conversation, asked me if I would like to lead the foundation as a curator – I instantly agreed.

Lobby view at the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin, copyright Stefan Müller

HNF was established in 2004. How has the art market changed since that time? What difficulties are gallery owners, artists, photographers experiencing in Berlin at the moment?

When we opened the Museum of Photography with a double exhibition in June 2004, a very lively art and photography scene was also established in Berlin at the same time. Since then, many artists have come to the city – and stayed. But in the meantime, it has become increasingly difficult to find affordable studios or gallery space here as well, and many gallery owners have moved within the city, some have even given up entirely; the whole scene is on the move. There are still many creative niches to make and offer art, at every level, and Berlin’s blue-chip galleries like Max Hetzler, Esther Schipper, Johann König, neugerriemschneider or Sprüth Magers are still finding enough customers.

How are museums connected with the art market?

In Germany, this connection is only indirect. Of course, the most important works of art in terms of art history ultimately end up in the museum, but few institutions have a decent acquisition budget and go shopping in the renowned galleries. Instead, paintings, drawings, photographs, sculptures, or installations are often acquired by museum circles of friends and private collectors and then donated to the museum collections.

Installation view, HOLLYWOOD, Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin 2022, photo Gerhard Kassner

Berlin is considered the artistic capital of Europe. Is this really the case? What is the difference between Berlin’s art spaces and similar venues in other art cities, such as London or New York, for example?

The art and culture scene in Berlin has been incredibly diverse for years, it’s a unique, great mix of high and low. But it’s similar in Paris, London and New York, I wouldn’t want to define a ranking here.

On 2 June 2022, the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin opened its new exhibition “HOLLYWOOD” featured works by Eve Arnold, Anton Corbijn, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Michael Dressel, George Hoyningen-Huene, Jens Liebchen, Ruth Harriet Louise, Inge Morath, Helmut Newton, Steve Schapiro, Julius Shulman, Alice Springs, and Larry Sultan.  Photographs by George Hurrell and publications by Annie Leibovitz and Ed Ruscha will also be on view in glass displays. Tell us more about the exhibition.

Hollywood is a brand and a myth, for decades an illusion machine without equal, not only when the Oscars are awarded in spring. The exhibition at the Helmut Newton Foundation traces the fascination of Hollywood. We see the stars, official and private, the villas of the rich and beautiful or film-loving tourists as well as numerous secondary motifs. Our group exhibition looks back 100 years by means of more than 200 exhibits, and yet it is highly up-to-date at the same time. It is a tribute to the slowly fading splendor of an entire era, in which cinematographic storytelling continues with photographic means.

Helmut Newton, Sigourney Weaver at Warner Bros, Burbank 1983, copyright Helmut Newton Foundation

Helmut Newton, Elizabeth Taylor, Vanity Fair, Los Angeles 1985, copyright Helmut Newton Foundation

George Hoyningen-Huene, Judy Garland, Hollywood 1945, © The George Hoyningen-Huene Estate Archives

How was the work on the preparation of the exhibition?

I love the whole developing process of such an exhibition – from the first idea, the compilation of possible photographers and their works, at first only in my head, the contact with the artists or the estates or galleries representing them, the imaginary combination of the concrete loans – up to the placing and hanging of the exhibits. Such a process usually takes more than a year – and so I am also engaged thoughtfully with the next exhibition and the one after that at the same time.

As a curator, what did you note for yourself at this exhibition?

I’m very pleased with the way the individual groups of works in our exhibition rooms harmoniously fit together, or contrast with each other in an exciting way. I have brought together the most diverse aspects in the Hollywood exhibition, from the very early vintage PR shots of the stars by Ruth Harriet Louise for MGM in the 1920s to the film set shots of „The Misfits,“ taken in 1960 by all the members of Magnum at the time, to the large-format documentation of the porn film production „The Valley“ by Larry Sultan in the late 1990s, which, as you know, is being made parallel and virtually next door to the big Hollywood productions. In addition to all the glitz and glamour of the Hollywood stars, we also encounter other dark sides of the film city Los Angeles, for example in the unsparing portraits by Michael Dressel or the photographic road trip „L.A. Crossing“ by Jens Liebchen, which also deals with the numerous homeless people in today’s metropolis.

Marilyn Monroe going over her lines for a difficult scene, The Misfits, USA 1960, copyright Eve Arnold and Magnum Photos

Why is it worth visiting the „HOLLYWOOD“ exhibition?

There has never been an exhibition like this before. The starting point and reference point for such group presentations in our museum is always the work of Helmut Newton, who portrayed numerous celebrities in Los Angeles, in and around Hollywood, for each and every one of whom Newton developed an individual scenario, thus creating magnificent psychological portraits. Anyone who is even slightly interested in cinema or the relationship between film and photography should see this exhibition. By the way, for all those for whom the way to Berlin is too far, we also offer guided VR films of our exhibitions on our website.

What are you, HNF, aiming for in the future?

I have many interesting exhibition projects in the drawer, I can promise you that; they always deal with the re-contextualization of Newton’s work. Specifically, I am preparing for the winter of 2022/23 with „Helmut Newton. Brands“, a presentation of his commercial photography; most of the motifs are completely unknown to the majority of visitors. This will be followed by a retrospective of the work of June Newton, a.k.a. Alice Springs, on the occasion of her 100th birthday in June 2023. The exhibition will also be shown in other locations, as well as the Newton exhibitions we have just organized in Belgium, Spain, Monaco, Australia, Austria, and Italy. In parallel I take care of the editing of newer and older Newton publications. Through these activities of our foundation Helmut and June Newton and their great work remain alive internationally – and I am very happy about that.

Installation view, HOLLYWOOD, Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin 2022, photo Gerhard Kassner

“HOLLYWOOD”, on view through 20 November 2022, at the Helmut Newton Foundation, Jebensstrasse 2, 10623 Berlin

Jan Prengel

Text:
L y u b o v  M e l n i c k o w a

Hello Jan! Thank you for taking time for that interview. How did you become photographer? Was it a long way to find yourself in art?

It’s my pleasure!
The serious interest in photography came up during a trip to Paris in 2010. I photographed urban life with a small, simple digital camera. The images printed out afterwards ignited a fire in me and my path began. I decided to study photography.
Starting with commissioned photography for companies and architects, etc., I have implemented more and more of my own projects and developed my personal style.
But I think finding yourself in art is a never-ending process. As long as you change yourself, your artistic creation will also change and redefine from time to time.

Morocco_Pastels

The main subjects of your works are modern architecture and urban spaces. Why did you choose this particular direction in photography?

I have chosen these subjects for my work because they allow you to project your own visions and feelings onto them. They provide the visual basis for it. For example If you portray people, they bring their own complex story with them, which you cannot and should not suppress for your own ideas.

Morocco_Pastels

Morocco_Pastels

Morocco_Pastels

Minimalism is a rather subjective concept. It leaves a wide space for the viewer to perceive the work. What does minimalism mean to you? Why did you choose this concept?

For me, minimalism is more than just a visual aesthetic. Minimalism has a calming psychological impact on the subconscious. It leads to internal order. Similar to the feeling after you’ve tidied up your home.
I think the greatest lasting happiness is when all energies are balanced and minimalism is a good basis for that.

Concrete_Berlin

Concrete

Who are your favorite photographers and where do you get inspiration to create?

Andreas Gursky, George Byrne, Josef Hoflehner.

My inspiration is a product of the totality of all external sensory stimuli as well as the mental processing of them. The thoughts often wander around for hours and you can only hope that something ‚tangible‘ will emerge from it, an idea that can be realised.

External influences can be documentaries such as: Gerhard Richter – Painting, or the red light of a car park that falls into my girlfriend’s apartment at night and creates a cinematic atmosphere.

Light_of_Lisbon

Graphic_Lisbon

Graphic_Lisbon

Who are your favorite photographers and where do you get inspiration to create? How has the pandemic affected your creative process in terms of goal setting? How did you deal with lockdown and limitations of last year?

The restrictions of the pandemic made me dealt with new subjects. For example I created my series Plants from Space. There has been also a strong self-reflection and personal development that will give future projects additional levels and depth.
So there has been a positive impact on my work. Nevertheless, I long for the freedom to travel with the opportunity to discover new places and to get new influences on my photography.

Blue_Theatre

Blue_Theatre

Untitled

What are your future photography plans and current projects you are working on.

I am working on projects with new concepts and themes where I include my recent thoughts and visions.
I don’t want to be more specific about projects until they are finished.
You never know what the future will bring.

www.janprengel.com