Photography Wednesday

My cultural part of the brain was longing so much for some cultural challenges that I couldn't wait Wednesday for a special treat at C/O Berlin, for some photography exhibitions. I was expecting something else: photographies about the everyday life in the DDR, plus another one about paparazzi, but I did not update my information before going it. However, did not regret the current offer: a retrospective Joel Sternfeld, whose series about the American landscape might have seen in the States, but nothing else, and a selection of the Deutsche Boerse Photography Prize. 

Historical layers in the building of the former Royal Post Office

The Sternfeld retrospective was really well organized, with a chronological/thematic organization of the material that allows to see the changes in the style of the photographer as well as the changes of the American social and natural landscape as well. The combination of colors is sometimes picturesque sometimes sad. I did not like the static human element. I love moment and to feel life, and many, if not most, of the human characters of Sternfeld's photos were not only obviously posing, but doing it in the most unnatural way. It may be an element of irony in all this, but I was not extremely impressed by it. 

A lovely fragment of the pavement

The other exhibition is smaller - Sternfeld's work is displayed on two stores - in the wing that used to be a sport hall. My eyes went caught by Pieter Hugo's photographies from a rubbish corner in Ghana, and by the collages by John Stezaker. 

At least, I can say I finish the week honorably well from the cultural point of view.