The photographic collection in the Düsseldorf City Museum

Info

• 264 pages, 17 × 24 cm
• Language: German
• ISBN 978-3-948174-31-6

Editorial
Daria Bona, Christoph Danelzik-Brüggemann

Authors / Artists
Clara Bolin, Daria Bona, Linda Conze, Christoph Danelzik-Brüggemann, Laura Heise, Julia Lederle-Wintgens, Cennet Maggiarosa, Ulrich Pohlmann, Kathrin Schönegg, Joachim Schröder, Anja Schürmann, Irmgard Siebert and Dietmar Haubfleisch, Steffen Siegel, Katharina Täschner, Kathrin Yacavone

Design
Helena Melikov

The photographic collection of the Düsseldorf City Museum encompasses photography from its beginnings to the present day – and in its full spectrum: from commissioned photography and private family portraits to artistic works. It reflects both the recent history of the city and the development of the visual medium since its invention.

This publication offers, for the first time, a comprehensive insight into the diverse and extensive collection. It brings together important works and well-known photographers from the local history of photography with previously little-noticed and unknown photographers, and vividly illustrates the thematic and material diversity of this special collection.

On each page, photographs from different times and contexts enter into a visual dialogue, opening up multifaceted interpretations and broadening our perspective beyond the city limits. What do these images tell us today about urban life and social participation, about our relationship to urban space and the environment—and about our reception of history and photography? At the same time, the collection reveals itself as a historically evolved visual memory of the city, one that deserves critical examination. In accompanying short texts, various authors introduce individual protagonists with single images and series, explore their backgrounds and functions, and offer insightful perspectives on the collection, the act of collecting, and photography itself.