The ifa Gallery Friedrichstraße presents an exhibition of photographs by Enrique Bostelmann (b. 1939), one of the most important photographers of our time. Bostelmann’s oeuvre is rich. He has experimented, worked in advertising, as a photojournalist and in documentary photography, penetrated the visual narratives of art and created objects, photo collages, and photo reliefs.
Despite the diversity of his photographic work and the variety of his subjects, the world of the Indian population is a constant. He is fascinated by the visual richness of this culture and respectfully explores the magical effects of even the most banal things.
“Inanimate objects of everyday use acquire a life of their own through photographic fixation in still lifes with strong symbolism and sometimes quiet humour. Landscapes with traces of human presence become enigmatic metaphors. He sometimes reduces houses and architectural details to a detail that becomes a geometric structure. But street scenes and paths also remain recurring motifs in Bostelmann’s work, now without the drama of the earlier years.” (Gerhard Haupt,catalogue text.)
The exhibition shows over 100 works from the 1960s to the 1990s and was put together by Prof. Gracia Kartofel and the artist. The exhibition is supported by the Mexican Embassy in Bonn and the Consulate General in Berlin, as well asthe Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores de ‘Iciko (Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico) and will later also be shown at the ifa Gallery in Bonn from November 1 – February 19 1994.