Fifty years of photographs by an urban planner known for his uncompromising critique of the former GDR
Ulrich Wüst (born 1949) trained as an urban planner and began photographing East German cities in the late 1970s. Today, his early work is widely recognized as a subtly formulated critique of social conditions in the GDR and one of the most important photographic records of the socialist state. Since the 1990s, he has expanded his practice to focus on the memory landscape of reunified Germany and the transformations of both city and countryside, particularly the villages and farming culture of Uckermark and other rural regions. In this first monograph on Wüst, Van Zante provides a context for his work in American and German urban photography and photography of place. Over 200 photographs are published here, many for the first time, including a selection of Wüst’s distinctive leporellos of titled series. An interview with the photographer and an exhibition and publishing history are included. Gary Van Zante is curator of the photography, design and architecture collections at the MIT Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
PhotoNews
Daniel Blochwitz
The Presence of Something Past” will soon be considered a standard work; after all, it is a knowledgeable, extremely readable, generously illustrated and elegantly designed book about an outstanding photographer who rightly shares a historical arc with his idols Walker Evans, Lee Friedlander, Lewis Baltz, and Albert Renger-Patzsch.” “In this clearly structured publication, Van Zante guides us through Wüst's life and work, showing that the photographer experienced disruptions before, during, and after the fall of the Wall but never sacrificed the integrity of his own photographic practice or work. On the contrary, Wüst can look back on a continuous oeuvre that has always dealt critically with his circumstances, the built environment around him, and his everyday life. …Van Zante has worked out the continuities in Wüst's work; for example, among other things, he points out how Wüst worked in a more reflective way after 1989, (re-)examinig all that had been unexhibited and unpublished during the GDR years and putting it in a different form.” “Wüst… [working in East Germany] learned to navigate the actual and alleged truths of the photographic image, creating correspondingly complex works [that] immensely enrich German photography today. Van Zante… with his systematic examination of Wüst’s work, shows how important it is to interpret and classify such a significant photographic position correctly. The fact that this book is published in English … shows the relevance of, and growing international interest in, Wüst's work. It also signals in an exemplary manner the overdue and necessary removal of Wüst’s work from the previous, somewhat confined context [of East German photography].
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FORMAT: Hbk, 8.25 x 10.5 in. / 320 pgs / 100 color / 416 duotone. LIST PRICE: U.S. $60.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $83 ISBN: 9783735605849 PUBLISHER: Kerber AVAILABLE: 2/14/2023 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: FLAT40 PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: In stock TERRITORY: NA LA ME
Gary Van Zante: The Presence of Something Past Ulrich Wüst Photographs
Published by Kerber. Text by Gary Van Zante.
Fifty years of photographs by an urban planner known for his uncompromising critique of the former GDR
Ulrich Wüst (born 1949) trained as an urban planner and began photographing East German cities in the late 1970s. Today, his early work is widely recognized as a subtly formulated critique of social conditions in the GDR and one of the most important photographic records of the socialist state. Since the 1990s, he has expanded his practice to focus on the memory landscape of reunified Germany and the transformations of both city and countryside, particularly the villages and farming culture of Uckermark and other rural regions. In this first monograph on Wüst, Van Zante provides a context for his work in American and German urban photography and photography of place. Over 200 photographs are published here, many for the first time, including a selection of Wüst’s distinctive leporellos of titled series. An interview with the photographer and an exhibition and publishing history are included.
Gary Van Zante is curator of the photography, design and architecture collections at the MIT Museum, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.