Fotografie
09. March 2024 - 16. June 2024
Fragile Dreams. Photographs of the Orient by Katharina Eglau
Opening: Saturday, 9 March 2024, 7 pm
The Near and Middle East are the cradle of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A fascinating web of cultures, religious practices, and ethical principles developed due to this co-existence. However, since then the Orient has increasingly been the source of fanaticism, narrow-mindedness, and violence in the name of religion and autocracy.
Katharina Eglau and her husband, the late Middle East correspondent Martin Gehlen have been observing the beauty and the crises of the Orient.
Katharina Eglau never saw herself as a news photographer, but as a mediator between the people in the Middle East or North Africa, and the people of the Western world, who encounter her photographs in the media and exhibitions. With her personal perspective, she captures the expression of emotions that all people around the world are familiar with.
Katharina Eglau
Born in 1960 in Berlin, trained at Lette Verein Berlin, followed by engagements as advertising photographer, the very first one even at Germany's famous Otto Group in Hamburg, and later in London and New York. In 1986, she got her master’s certificate at the "Heinz Bindseil" Academy for Photography in Hamburg.
She was photo editor at German newspapers taz (1988-1994) and Tagesspiegel (1994-2002) and, in addition, worked as a professor for architecture photography at Technische Fachhochschule Berlin for thirteen years, until 2004.
Since 1999, she has been a member of the Bonn photo agency Joker in the fields of Middle East, Africa, and religions. Her photography was published in numerous of the renowned national German daily and weekly papers, as well as in publications of Austria and Switzerland – and in our local paper, the Südwest Presse Ulm.
Since 1999, Katharina has undertaken months of research trips not only to countries of the Orient, but also to the USA, Uzbekistan, France, Colombia, or Ghana. With Martin Gehlen she lived in Egypt from 2008 to 2017, then in Tunisia until 2021. Together working on their reports they visited all nations of the Arabic and Islamic world.
Martin Gehlen
1956-2021, was a widely read Middle East correspondent, known for his articles and analyses that were considered to be profound and were published in numerous German-language publications.
Starting as a politics editor at Südwest Presse, the studied biologist, Catholic theologist, and doctor of political science transferred to Tagesspiegel after the fall of the Berlin Wall, returning to Südwest Presse in 2012. He would have retired in 2022, but unexpectedly died in the year before in his last home in Tunis.
Martin Gehlen once said about his wife, and it is true for this exhibition:
"I am sure people sense that Katharina likes them. It is this empathy in particular, that her photography conveys. Please understand Katharina Eglau’s exhibition as the promotion of a region of this world that has been living through decades of an excess of conflict and violence – and of its people, who are longing for a fulfilled live for themselves and their children, just like we all do here in Germany.”
Audio files of the reports by Martin Gehlen heard in the exhibition
Available only in German
Fasten und Festen. Südwest Presse, 27.09.2008
Der arabische Frühling ist weiblich. Südwest Presse, 11.02.2012
Im Namen Allahs. Südwest Presse, 30.11.2013
Es war einmal der Garten Eden. Südwest Presse, 06.02.2016
Zerstörerischer Goldrausch. Südwest Presse, 07.01.2017
Ein bisschen Frieden. Südwest Presse, 26.05.2018
Verfolgt und vertrieben. Südwest Presse, 26.05.2018
Curated by Karla Nieraad & Katrin Stern
Advisors:
Ulf Schlüter, former deputy editor-in-chief of Südwest Presse Ulm
Elisabeth Zoll, political journalist of Südwest Presse Ulm
Opening: Saturday, 9 March 2024, 7 pm
also live on Stadthaus Ulm YouTube
with Tomas Avenarius, foreign policy reporter/Süddeutsche Zeitung,
and Saz player Ali İlhan
Guided tours and programs for students in German language.
Special thanks to Südwest Presse Ulm