Wolfgang Schulz und die Fotoszene um 1980

Abstract

In the period around 1980, the world of art photography began to change. Museums started taking an interest in the medium, photo galleries were founded, photography made its first major appearance at the 1977 documenta, and magazines were launched. A total of forty editions of the magazine FOTOGRAFIE: Zeitschrift internationaler Fotokunst were published between 1977 and 1985. Founded by Wolfgang Schulz (b. 1944) in Göttingen, the magazine quickly developed into a national phenomenon that charted the photographic scene. Widely acclaimed and often controversial, it was an extremely lively forum for a burgeoning new movement growing in multiple directions in which art as commerce did not yet play a significant role. And it is only by virtue of a chance discovery that we know that Schulz himself had also created a considerable body of photographs at the time. The book is the first to draw on portfolios and conversations with contemporary witnesses in an attempt to rediscover a magazine and its editor, and with them a piece of West German photographic history that, quite unjustly, is almost completely forgotten today. Reinhard Matz (b. 1952) is a freelance photographer and photo historian in Cologne. Steffen Siegel (b. 1976) is professor of the theory and history of photography at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen. Bernd Stiegler (b. 1964) is professor of modern German literature with a special focus on media contexts at the University of Konstanz.