Works
BABYLON BERLIN, PHOTOGRAPHED BY JOACHIM GERN
Joachim Gern’s photographs, taken on the set of BABYLON BERLIN, are artistically free works and claim their own photographic world in Berlin of 1929, recreated for the film. Gern’s productions penetrate to the core of the portrayed, exposing their innards. With the help of facial expressions and habitus, costume and mask, scene design and light, he creates individuals whose aura reaches beyond their story told in the film.
6 June 2019 – 20 July 2019
On 6 June beginning at 7 p.m. all are invited to the opening reception at the gallery. The artist is present..
The following works are presented in the show:
BABYLON BERLIN
Hardly any TV series in recent years has had such a presence in the media as BABYLON BERLIN, which tells of the social upheavals of the so-called Golden Twenties in Berlin on the eve of the Great Depression and National Socialism. The starting point of the series is a novel by Volker Kutscher, staged by the directors Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries and Henk Handloegten in coproduction between X Filme, ARD, Sky and Beta Film as a broad-based historical panorama of the Weimar Republic, broadcast free-to-air in 2018. The crime story, which takes place in May 1929, revolves around Gereon Rath (Volker Bruch), who has moved from Cologne to Berlin. During his investigations, he becomes involved in the radical changes of the economy, culture and politics. In the throbbing metropolis, progressive impoverishment and organized crime face excessive nightlife and luxury, and in view of increasing political radicalization, life in Berlin at the end of the twenties becomes a dance on the volcano.
We are pleased to present 40 fine art prints of photographs by Joachim Gern, who accompanied the shooting from May to December 2016 on about 100 days with his camera. The producers were so enthusiastic about the result of his photo portraits of the actors Volker Bruch, Liv Lisa Fries, Peter Kurth, Lars Eidinger, Matthias Brandt, Mišel Matičević, Severija Janušauskaitė and others, that the idea was born, to publish the works of Joachim Gern and the still photographer Frédéric Batier in a film book. As a publisher, the literary scholar Michael Töteberg was won, as publisher Kiepenheuer & Witsch. The book was already sold out at the end of 2018.
Joachim Gern’s photographs, taken on the set of BABYLON BERLIN, are artistically free works and claim their own photographic world in Berlin of 1929, recreated for the film. Gern’s productions penetrate to the core of the portrayed, exposing their innards. With the help of facial expressions and habitus, costume and mask, scene design and light, he creates individuals whose aura reaches beyond their story told in the film. In this respect, the photographs by Joachim Gern of the set for BABYLON BERLIN prove to be works of the highest portrait art.
About the artist: Joachim Gern comes from Schleswig-Holstein, lives in Berlin and photographs portraits, fashion and free projects. He works for magazines such as STERN and ZEIT, photographs film posters (inter alia, Goodbye Lenin, Mr. Lehmann, The heart is a dark forest). The focus of his work are portraits of actors (including Christoph Waltz, Martina Gedeck, Harrison Ford, Johanna Wokalek, Jan Josef Liefers) and writers (including Ian McEwan, Norman Ohler, Sissel –Jo Gazan). The early work “Soul Excitations from Second Hand” (1989) was presented with the ensemble of the Schaubühne Berlin, followed by “German Filmstars” (2001) at the Filmmuseum Berlin, “Hats by Fiona Bennett” (2005), as well as many participations in group exhibitions such as “I have a dream” (2005/06) from the ZEIT.