Neue Nationalgalerie

About Cathrin Schulz

Clear precision in urban vision At first glance it is not clear if Cathrin Schulz’s works are in fact photographs – so delicate are the lines in her series Urban Visions – of major cities such as Berlin, Cape Town, Shanghai, and… Read more

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Clear precision in urban vision


At first glance it is not clear if Cathrin Schulz’s works are in fact photographs – so delicate are the lines in her series Urban Visions – of major cities such as Berlin, Cape Town, Shanghai, and Miami. These metropolises have inspired the Berlin photographer to extract a distilled tranquility upon which we can project our memories and emotions.


The images emphasize architectural distinctiveness with their brilliantly clear precision. In one Schulz allows Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie by Mies van der Rohe to shine sublimely, while in another the roof construction over Olympic Stadium reveals a monumental symmetry. A close-up of the German capital’s Television Tower underscores the building’s graphic and aesthetic perfection. Through unusual perspectives and the accentuation of details, well-known objects again become visible.



The works of Schulz draw from the cool objectivity that presents their subjects without bias. Through the digital editing – pushing contrasts and saturation to the limits while muting and holding back on the coloring – Schulz has found a mode of expression all her own. By distancing reality with colors and contrasts, she undercuts the documentarian’s objective gaze and creates space for subjectivity. She freezes impressions of the urban landscape in a fleeting sequence of images that suggest both silence and timelessness.

VITA

1971	Born in Wiesbaden, Germany
1991-1996	Studies of economic history, University, Zurich, Switzerland and Cambridge, USA
1997-98	European Business School, Financial Economics, Oestrich Winkel (Frankfurt), Germany
Since 2002	Work in photography
	Lives and works in Atlanta, USA

Exhibitions

2010	Photographer’s Choice 2010, Atlanta, USA
2008-09	C|O Berlin (International Forum for Visual Dialogues), Berlin, Germany