Andreas Müller-Pohle (born July 19, 1951, in
Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
) is a German photographer, media artist and publisher. He is considered an important representative of experimental photography and is the originator of the theory of "Visualism".
As a publisher, especially of the bi-lingual art magazine
European Photography
''European Photography'', based in Berlin, is an independent art magazine for international contemporary photography and new media. It was founded in 1980 and is published by the German artist Andreas Müller-Pohle.
History
''European Photograp ...
, Müller-Pohle has documented and influenced the development of independent photography since the early 1980s. Since 1983 he has published the writings of the media and culture philosopher
Vilém Flusser
Vilém Flusser (May 12, 1920 – November 27, 1991) was a Brazilian Czech-born philosopher, writer and journalist. He lived for a long period in São Paulo (where he became a Brazilian citizen) and later in France, and his works are written ...
, whose work he has popularised especially in the German speaking countries.
Biography
Andreas Müller-Pohle attended primary schools in
Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
during 1958–1962, then 1962–1970, obtained the leaving certificate at Kassel Gymnasium. He studied law at
University of Göttingen
The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...
from 1970 to 1971, after which he trained as a commercial employee at Continental Gummi-Werke AG, Hanover until 1973. He studied economics and communication science from 1973 to 1974 in Hanover and from 1974 to 1979 in Göttingen. During this time he was introduced to photography by a friend, and purchased equipment, teaching himself the medium. He initially worked with the moving image, and from the mid-1970s onwards engaged in practical and theoretical approaches to photography, undertaking a project ''Konstellationen'' to deal with pictorial syntax.
Writer and theoretician
Müller-Pohle joined the journal ''Fotografie'' as writer and critic from 1971 to 1979, when he took over the Swiss ''Print Letter'' in 1980, rebranding it as the magazine ''
European Photography
''European Photography'', based in Berlin, is an independent art magazine for international contemporary photography and new media. It was founded in 1980 and is published by the German artist Andreas Müller-Pohle.
History
''European Photograp ...
'', and has been its publisher ever since. Friend and philosopher
Vilém Flusser
Vilém Flusser (May 12, 1920 – November 27, 1991) was a Brazilian Czech-born philosopher, writer and journalist. He lived for a long period in São Paulo (where he became a Brazilian citizen) and later in France, and his works are written ...
's first book in English, his own translation, was ''Towards a Philosophy of Photography'' published in 1984 by the then new journal ''
European Photography
''European Photography'', based in Berlin, is an independent art magazine for international contemporary photography and new media. It was founded in 1980 and is published by the German artist Andreas Müller-Pohle.
History
''European Photograp ...
,'' followed by other media and cultural-philosophical texts in the following years. Since then, Müller-Pohle has been working with Flusser's oeuvre and archive. In 1987, together with Volker Rapsch under their imprint Immantrix they published Flusser's essay "Die Schrift" as an early electronic book on diskette. In 1996 he produced the "Edition Flusser", a ten-volume edition.
Educator
Since 1997, he has been guest professor at the Higher Institute for fine Arts, Antwerp, and since, at teaching institutes in Europe, Asia and North and South America. In 2005, he founded Eye-Mind, an individual workshop initiative in Berlin.
Photographic practice
Andreas Müller-Pohle's work spans a variety of topics and concepts in pursuit of a reflective examination of the medium of photography. His first projects from the mid-1970s dealt with questions of image aesthetics and photographic perception, he then turned to - now also with the medium of video - photo recycling and the materiality and immateriality of photography. His first solo exhibition was in 1978. Müller-Pohle's interest in "interfaces" leads him in several of his works to completely renounce the classic photographic image and to transform it into other code systems (such as alphanumeric or genetic codes). In the mid-1990s, Müller-Pohle deconstructed digital, genetic and political codes. One of the first artists to have broken down and translated the analog and the digital codes of images, his series ''Digital Scores (after Nicéphore Niépce)'' decodes the photograph by Niépce,
''
View from the Window at Le Gras
''View from the Window at Le Gras'' is a heliographic image and the oldest surviving camera photograph. It was created by French inventor Nicéphore Niépce in 1827 in Saint-Loup-de-Varennes, France, and shows parts of the buildings and surroun ...
'' into alphanumeric symbols distributed over eight panels. As
Geoffrey Batchen
Geoffrey Batchen (born 21 November 1956, Melbourne, Australia) is an Australian art historian. Since 2020, Batchen has been Professor of Art History at the University of Oxford.
Career
Professor
Assistant Professor, Visual Arts, University o ...
expressed it:
Fictional nostalgia aside, today's photographic universe is found not in clumps of silver but in the algorithms racing across the surface of German artist Andreas Müller-Pohle's 1995 ''Digital Scores (after Nicéphore Niépce)...''No dots, No silver. No emulsion. No hidden information. In fact, nothing but information
His work ''The Danube River Project'' , created in 2005 and 2006, takes up this longstanding preoccupation with interfaces: A "picture atlas" of the Danube is annotated from water samples taken by the artist and inscribed in the photographs.
Müller-Pohle's subsequent project, ''Hong Kong Waters'', takes as subject diverse water landscapes of the Asian metropolis in a photo, video and sound installation. Another work on the topic of water, ''
Kaunas
Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...
upon the Rivers'', was created in 2017 as part of an
artist-in-residence
Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...
.
Since 2013 Müller-Pohle has undertaken an extensive cycle revealing flows of urban traffic (''Studies on Traffic''), for which he uses the media of photography, sound and video.
Exhibitions, screenings, installations
Müller-Pohle has shown in more than 200 exhibitions, many with published catalogues, and his work has received international attention since the mid-1980s.
* 2018 – Analog und Schwarzweiß: Fotografie in Westdeutschland 1945–2000 aus der Sammlung Schupmann. Kunsthalle Erfurt, Germany
* 2015 – Without Ground – Vilém Flusser and the Arts.ZKM , Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
* 2014 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Coincidences. A Select Retrospective. Prague City Gallery, House of Photography, Prague, Czech Republic
* 2014 – (Mis)Understanding Photography. Werke und Manifeste. Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
* 2011 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Hong Kong Waters. Photo/Video/Sound. Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong
* 2008 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: The Danube River Project. European Month of Photography, Uferhallen, Berlin, Germany
* 2007 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Photo/Video/Sound. Arbeiten 1995–2006. Städtische Galerie, Palais Stutterheim, Erlangen, Germany
* 2006 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: The Danube River Project. Donauschwäbisches Zentralmuseum, Ulm, Germany
* 2004 – p0es1s. Digital Poetry. Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany
* 2003 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: CodeZone. Digitale Arbeiten 1995–2003. Museum für Photographie, Braunschweig, Germany
* 2002 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: CodeZone. Digital Projects. Gallery Ississ, Kyoto, Japan
* 2002 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Interfaces. FotoFest, Topek Building, Houston, Texas
* 2001 – ex machina. Über die Zersetzung der Fotografie. Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst / Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
* 2000 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Digital Scores, Entropia. The Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
* 2000 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Entropia. Tschumipavillon, Groningen, Netherlands
* 1999 – Das XX. Jahrhundert. Ein Jahrhundert Kunst in Deutschland. Berlin, Germany
* 1999 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Interfaces. Foto + Video 1977–1999. Altes Rathaus, Göttingen, Germany
* 1998 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Codex. Mücsarnok / Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary
* 1997 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Entropia. Kunstverein, Rüsselsheim, Germany
* 1996 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Entropia. World Wide Video Festival, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands
* 1995 – Photography After Photography. Memory and Representation in the Digital Age. Aktionsforum Praterinsel, Munich, Germany
* 1995 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: De Perrudja à Perlasca Espace Photographique Contretype, Brussels, Belgium
* 1994 – "Deutsche Kunst mit Photographie: Die 90er Jahre". Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
* 1992 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Signa. Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, Austria
* 1991 – Andreas Müller-Pohle: Was ich nicht sehe, fotografiere ich. Was ich nicht fotografiere, sehe ich. Arbeiten 1976–1991. Brandenburgische Kunstsammlungen, Cottbus, Germany
* 1989 – Das Foto als autonomes Bild – Experimentelle Gestaltung 1839–1989. Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany
* 1989 – Dokument und Erfindung – Fotografien aus der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945 bis heute. Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin, Germany
* 1988 – Fotovision – Projekt Fotografie nach 150 Jahren. Sprengel Museum, Hanover, Germany
* 1986 – Fotografie: Abbildung? Einbildung? Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund, Germany
* 1984 – La Photographie créative. Bibliothèque Nationale /
Pavillon des Arts The Pavillon des Arts was a museum located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris at Les Halles, 101, rue Rambuteau, Paris, France. According tan article in Evene.fr the museum closed in 2006.
The museum was established in 1983 in a contemporary glass ...
, Paris, France
* 1981 – Erweiterte Fotografie. 5. Internationale Biennale, Wiener Secession, Vienna, Austria
* 1981 – New German Photography. The Photographers' Gallery, London, England
* 1980 – Vorstellungen und Wirklichkeit – 7 Aspekte subjektiver Fotografie. Museum Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany
Collections
Müller-Pohle is represented in public and private collections.
*
Bibliothèque nationale de France
The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...
, Paris
*
Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg
The Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg (''Museum of Art and Design Hamburg'') is a museum of fine, applied and decorative arts in Hamburg, Germany. It is located centrally, near the Hauptbahnhof.
History
The museum was founded in 1874, foll ...
*
Polaroid Collection
The Polaroid Collection was a collection of fine-art photographs assembled by the Polaroid Corporation. The collection was initiated in the 1940s by Ansel Adams and Edwin Land. Following the company's 2008 bankruptcy, the collection was broken up f ...
, Amsterdam
*
Musée Cantini
The Musée Cantini is a museum in Marseilles that has been open to the public since 1936. The museum specializes in modern art, especially paintings from the first half of the twentieth century.
The building
The musée Cantini building was bui ...
, Marseille
*
Museum of Contemporary Photography
The Museum of Contemporary Photography (MoCP) was founded in 1976 by Columbia College Chicago as the successor to the Chicago Center for Contemporary Photography. The museum houses a permanent collection as well as the Midwest Photographers Project ...
, Columbia College Chicago
* Sammlung fotografis Länderbank, Vienna
*
Center for Creative Photography
The Center for Creative Photography (CCP), established in 1975 and located on the University of Arizona's Tucson campus, is a research facility and archival repository containing the full archives of over sixty of the most famous American pho ...
, University of Arizona
*
Hong Kong Heritage Museum
Hong Kong Heritage Museum is a museum of history, art and culture in Sha Tin, Hong Kong, located beside the Shing Mun River. The museum opened on 16 December 2000. It is managed by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department of the Hong Kong ...
, Hong Kong
*
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...
*
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
*
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern
The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (; es, link=no, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno; English: "Valencian Institute of Modern Art"), also known by the acronym IVAM, was the first center of modern art created in Spain, opening in 1989 in the ...
, Spain
Awards
* 2021 – Hong Kong Photobook Award – elected judge
*2011 –
Prix Pictet The Prix Pictet (Pictet prize) is an international award in photography. It was founded in 2008 by the Geneva-based Pictet Group with the mandate to use the power of photography to communicate messages about sustainability to a global audience. Its ...
- elected nominator
* 2008 – Kassel PhotoBook Award
* 2001 – Prix européen de la photographie de la Fondation Reind M. De Vries
Bibliography
* ''Andreas Muellerpohle : photo/video/sound 1995 - 2006,'' Städtische Galerie Erlangen 2007, ISBN 9783923899340
* Coleman, A.D. ''Andreas Müller-Pohle : Synopsis.'' Québec, Qc: ''Vu'', 1997
* Equivalence. ''Andreas Müller-Pohle'',
nline 2017
* Godefroid, Jean-Louis. ''Cyclogrammes : Andreas Müller-Pohle'', exhibition catalogue, Galerie Mantoux-Gignac from 16 January to 8 March 1997, Bruxelles: Espace photographique contretype, 1996
*
LensCulture
''LensCulture'' is a photography network and online magazine about contemporary photography in art, media, politics, commerce and popular cultures worldwide. It is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
''LensCulture'' sponsors international photograph ...
: ''Andreas Müller-Pohle'',
nline 2017
* Tomaszek, Patricia. ''Andreas Müller-Pohle'',
nline 2013
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muller-Pohle, Andreas
German photographers
German publishers (people)
1951 births
German art historians
Living people