Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: The Photographic Work

Kirchner was one of the most important painters of the Expressionist movement, but he was also a skilled photographer who documented the era’s main protagonists and milieu. This is the first collection of his photographs, taken between 1908 and 1938. Brought together, they offer insight into the beginning of the modern age and all its contradictions, not least in the wild bohemian life of the artists, set alongside scenes of the intensely archaic Alpine world. The chronological sequence of images covers all the genres in which Kirchner worked as a photographer: self-portraits, individual and group portraits, nudes, scenes from his atelier, exhibition documentation, landscapes, installations and documentary photographs. Texts analyze historical and artistic context, as well as camera technique. The index contains formal descriptions of the photographs and an extensive register. A detailed biography, illustrated in part by previously unpublished photos, links individual photographs to specific moments in Kirchner's life.