Andreas Müller-Pohle (born July 19, 1951, in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( ; from Low German , local dialect: ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

) 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, 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, whose work he has popularised especially in the German speaking countries.

Biography

Andreas Müller-Pohle attended primary schools in

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

and

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

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 (, commonly referred to as Georgia Augusta), is a Public university, public research university in the city of Göttingen, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1734 ...

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, including it in '' European Photography'', and has been its publisher ever since. Friend and philosopher Vilém Flusser's first book in English, his own translation, was ''Towards a Philosophy of Photography'' published in 1984 by the then new journal '' European Photography,'' 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 Acornsoft was the software arm of Acorn Computers, and a major publisher of software for the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron. As well as games, it also produced a large number of educational titles, extra computer languages and business and ut ...

'' into alphanumeric symbols distributed over eight panels. As Geoffrey Batchen 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 (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...

upon the Rivers'', was created in 2017 as part of an

artist-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

. 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, 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 (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

, 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, fol ...

* Polaroid Collection, Amsterdam *

Musée Cantini The Musée Cantini is a museum in Marseille 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 buil ...

, Marseille *

Museum of Contemporary Photography A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

, 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 ph ...

, University of Arizona *

Hong Kong Heritage Museum Hong Kong Heritage Museum is a public 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 Ho ...

, 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. The permanent collection of the museum spans more than 5,000 years of history with nearly 80,000 works from six continents. Follo ...

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum and nonprofit organization located in San Francisco, California. SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast devoted solely to 20th-century art ...

* Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, 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: ''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