In the late 1970s, Joachim Brohm began to use color photographs to record the world around him. At the time, this was unusual in both art and “serious” documentary photography. Color photographs were acceptable for ads or holiday snapshots, but in order to qualify as art, photography had to be in black and white. The only photographers who ignored this dogma were Americans like William Eggleston or Stephen Shore. Brohm took them as his model. His pioneer achievements were long overshadowed by the fact that the international success of contemporary German art photography is primarily associated with the “Becher School.” Yet Brohm’s first color photos predate Andreas Gursky’s by several years: the artists are the same age.

Brohm’s work centers on long-term projects that he pursues for several years. The first series, entitled Ruhr, dates to 1979. In subdued colors, he captures the landscape and everyday situations of his native West German region. Brohm began work on the series fahren (driving) in 1995. Here, he takes his photographs from a moving car and thus records motifs and situations that usually go unnoticed. Many of these images were made on trips between his home in Essen and his workplace in Leipzig. Other parts of the series were taken while he traveled, but also in Ravensburg and its sur-roundings. For exhibition purposes, Brohm presents the images horizontally and thus evokes a filmclip. fahren expresses a transitory attitude to life and therefore corresponds to the zeitgeist.

Born in 1955 in the Lower Rhine town of Dülken, Joachim Brohm now lives in Essen and Leipzig. A graduate of the Essen’s Folkwang School, he has worked for many years as a freelance photographer. In 2003 he began his tenure as director of the Leipziger Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst.