Paragons Afterimages Photographs from the Berlin University of the Arts, 1850–1930

How photographs became art: »Paragons & Afterimages« – the pair of terms refers to correlations between images, but also to their production, where reference is made to already existing images. In the art academies and schools of applied arts in the 19th and early 20th century, photographs served as »models« or »paragons« and served as their individual didactic type of image. Photographic reference material was an important aid in the creative practice of aspiring artists; and in the course of their use, »afterimages« were created in art classes: paintings, sculptures, drawings and graphics. The archives of the Berlin University of the Arts have preserved a unique and valuable photographic teaching collection that dates back to the 1850s and had already been created at the predecessor institutions, the Berlin Art Academy and the leading School of Decorative Arts. With approximately 25,000 individual photographic prints, and additional bundles and albums, this collection is unique in Germany. Hardly noticed for a long time, it has in recent years been archivally and scientifically reviewed. This collection is presented for the first time in this book and with the exhibition organized by the Münchner Stadtmuseum. The most common pictorial motifs include art reproductions, landscapes, nature studies of water, clouds, trees, plants, rocks etc., architecture, still lifes of fruits, glass etc., portraits, genre scenes as well as tableaux vivants, nudes and animal studies, oriental and historical representations. The original studies – distributed in France as »études d'après nature« – are by well-known European and American photographers, among them: Fratelli Alinari, Ottomar Anschütz, Karl Blossfeldt, Adolphe Braun, Eugène Cuvelier, Georg Maria Eckert, Constantin Famin, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Jakob August Lorent, Gustave le Gray, James Robertson, Henry Peach Robinson, Giorgio Sommer, Carleton Watkins.

Ludger Derenthal is director of the Museum of Photography in Berlin and curator of numerous exhibitions on the history and recent photography. His special approach in the volume PARAGONS AFTERIMAGES is the work of Albert Renger-Patzsch and the New Vision. Anastasia Dittmann, MA in art history, Italian studies, and English studies at the University of Marburg. From 2009–2011, instructor as the Marburg Institute for Art History. Since 2007, has worked in various data bank projects at the German Documentation Center for Art History-Image Archive Photo Marburg, including the construction of a virtual slide library of church architecture and contemporary ecclesiastical art, and cataloging the papers of Reinhart Koselleck. Monika Faber was curator at the Albertina in Vienna and is now curator at the photoinstitute Bonartes. Her focus in PARGONS AFTERIMAGES is on the Cairo travels of Bohemian Austrian photographers. Antje Kalcher is scientific research specialist at the archive of the Berlin University, her contribution to PARAGONS AFTERIMAGES is an exact overview of the historical documentary material. Hubert Locher is professor of art history in Marburg. His scientific work focuses art theory of photography. 2013 he was guest scholar at the Getty Research Institute Los Angeles, since 2015 he is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham, UK. In his contribution to PARAGONS AFTERIMAGES he focuses on History Painting and Photography. Kristina Lowis is a curator and art historian who publishes books on art and cultural studies. Her main focus is the Bauhaus history and its aesthetic manifestations. In PARAGONS AFTERIMAGES she is focusing on the expansion of the study of the nude through photography. Ulrich Pohlmann is head and chief curator of the Photography Collection at the Munich Stadtmuseum. The Photography Museum (now Photography Collection) was opened in 1963. With over 850,000 photos, it ranks among the leading collections in Europe. Although its main focus is on photography up to 1980, the collection is being consistently expanded to include contemporary themes as well. Ulrich Pohlmann is heavily influential in the German reception of photography in the last 40 years, and he is editor of several impressive books. Dietmar Schenk leads the archive of the Berlin University since 1991, and he is the head of the Photographic Collection from the University, which also includes the Karl Blossfeldt Collection. He has published numerous works on scientific archival questions, since years he is curating shows with archival material of the University’s collections.