Andreas Gehrke
Brandenburg

150 pages / 74 images
29 × 32.5 cm
Edition of 24 Signed

Design: Richard Lange

Limited Artist Book
Archival Ditone® Prints on Hahnemühle Photo Rag
incl. signed and numbered print 28 × 35.5 cm

Brandenburg: No longer the pastoral idyll and symbol of German history depicted by Theodor Fontane, the region has faced a challenging reinvention since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Looking to unveil the many layers of history that have settled over the state, Andreas Gehrke embarked on a journey – to compose a considered portrait of Brandenburg. For years he has worked on the project, compiling what could be described as a Brandenburgian Iconography. His Brandenburg is defined by moments of incongruity. Moments in which the view is adjusted or brought to a focus, moments that constantly question what it is we see, or what we believe we see.

Gehrke’s images invite the viewer to linger, provoking contemplation of the detail-rich compositions. They do not form an explanatory, linear narrative, rather unfold kaleidoscopically: each motif is offset by the next. In this way, page after page, a complex whole is revealed. The overall picture, however, is not a cliched collection of dilapidation and decrepitude, but a subtle series of allusions to the historical, structural and social changes Brandenburg has experienced since the fall of the Berlin Wall. Combining the personal, political and geographical, his images create a semantics of the region’s unique characteristics, offering the reader an unsentimental history of Brandenburg, beyond the realm of temporality.

Christina Landbrecht