DIAMONDPAPER #02 > Michael Schmidt
“Ihme Zentrum. 4 Fotografien, 8 Ausschnitte”

DIAMONDPAPER #02 is published on the occasion
of “Cruel and Tender:The Real in Twentieth
Century Photography” (5 June - 7 September 2003),
the first exhibition at Tate Modern to be
dedicated to photography.

The legendary photographer Michael Schmidt who,
alongside artists like Robert Frank, Andreas
Gursky and August Sander presents works in
“Cruel and Tender” that are represen-tative of
his more than four decades long career, has
created an original piece for the second issue
of DIAMONDPAPER.

Under the title “Ihme Zentrum. 4 Fotografien,
8 Ausschnitte”, he has conceived of a series of
black-and-white photographs for the large format edition.The photographical work of the Berlin
artist rises to unexpected heights at this
juncture. Here, his various working methods (serializations, “extracts”, etc.),through
which he has repeatedly managed to reinvent
photography over the last few decades, are
employed symbiotically. On the eight excellently
printed pages, Schmidt focuses on a megalomanic
building complex built in the 1970s which
“he “re-mixes” in the course of a process of
de- and subsequent re-construction.”