Joachim Schumacher
L.A. Galerie Lothar AlbrechtDomstrasse 6 60311 Frankfurt GERMANY 
T: + 49 – 69 – 288687 e-mail: |
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 Joachim Schumacher ©, Bochum-Hofstede, 2014, 41 x 82 cm |
 Joachim Schumacher ©, Duisburg Hochfeld, 2009, 41 × 82 cm |
I want to live in the real world
Fabian Lasarzik
(…) The concept of the Ruhr Region did not become established until around 1930. It is not a geographical or administrative term, but refers to the watershed of the Ruhr or more properly of the Emscher. The Ruhr region seems to be more a “perceived” region that connects people. It is these commonalities in their micro- and macro-like aspects and stratifications that Schumacher documents as chronicler and artist.
Joachim Schumacher’s paintings are characterized by a documentary approach; his subject is more landscape than urban photography. The motifs are brownfields in their characteristic blend of remnants of nature and industrial relics. He photographs the city with its streets and rows of houses, characterized by rapid changes in their use, in much the same way. The pictures are always almost unpeopled, they seem deserted, basically, and the diffuse, unchanging light adds to this impression. The landscape has been dramatically altered by humans and appears detached, sober and somewhat distant. Many views are striking for their preposterous dreariness, with their innumerable satellite dishes, with lots of grey concrete and cheap posters next to the facade of a betting shop.
Though often bordering on satire, the pictures do not incite laughter. However, the viewer is not appalled by the sadness. A peculiar dignity, indeed a kind of beauty of the real inhabits the images. They get their power in part from the fact that they skilfully and confidently resist the suggestions of the photographs commissioned by the city and regional marketing agencies. Perhaps in this way Schumacher’s pictures satisfy a longing for the real and authentic. He goes looking for his motives on his bike, by the way, wherever “people live their ordinary lives”
There is a remarkable calmness in Schumacher’s pictures, an equanimity without indifference. An almost contemplative mood that is sustained by his in some cases absolutely straight alignments (as in the Emscherkanal pictures) or the broad vistas. Schumacher is a consummate chronicler and he is committed to that role. His aim is to be as authentic as possible. His carefully considered pictures are well-proportioned, neither ugly nor pretty. Instead they show an inner “normality” that describes the home of the photographer as “of this world”. Not in the sense of “everywhere else is just as bad” but rather in the sense of “finally like everywhere else”. But even that does not do justice to the pictures, because they have an inner authority in that they seem authentic even without a semantic superstructure. It is clear that photography cannot copy truth, but for the photographer this discipline “comes closer”. Schumacher’s pictures depict truths that are likely to be consensus when it comes to places “of this world”: places in continuous rapid change. Places that are constantly exposed to deformations and have little to do with a framed city landscape, and yet, despite all profanity, are home.
It is striking-and here you can see the expert who has dealt extensively with the region for 40 years- that when choosing his motifs he is careful to ensure a representative mix of the views characteristic of the Ruhr region. These include typical materials such as concrete and asphalt, green areas such as lawns, trees and shrubs, traffic routes such as rail and roads and the facades and shaft towers of former industrial plants. Schumacher is a specialist in the iconography of that landscape. “Photography must focus more on the real, otherwise it swims with painting,” he says. So there are never any overexposures meant to achieve strong effects. Everything remains sober, and there is poetry in that sobriety. Like an archaeologist. Schumacher exposes layers of time. (…)
It should be stressed at this point that colour photography meant a different challenge for Joachim Schumacher than the black and white photography that he was previously so versed in. Colour is more real, colour is emotion, it is much harder to control and quickly distracts one from the essence. Colour evokes strong emotions, unlike structure and form, and the photographer has to keep them under control and not give too much weight to the colour. Schumacher’s colour photographs show how skilfully he has taken up that challenge.
The question is why Schumacher as a professed chronicler did not discover colour photography earlier, especially since it is hardly imaginable that he would have given preference to black and white photographs for sentimental or purely aesthetic reasons. The answer is quite trivial: it was not until the 1990s that colour-fast enlargements could be made, ones that would not change colour when archived. It was around that time that Schumacher began to produce large images in colour.
Schumacher’s pictures allow the observer to read from the public and semipublic, but never private views the marks that past and present have left on the region. The concurrent existence of past, present and future is revealed in a mixture peculiar to the region. This is reflected in all the pictures, which bear witness to major urban transformations while also showing individual, to some extent improvised construction works. This almost creates the impression of a somewhat makeshift, coziness, revealing a kind of deeper beauty, individuality and humanity - like a small owner-operated business with individual signage in the middle of a large shopping mall. Ultimately it shows that what is photographed is the result of human activity in many forms, from the great economic design to the small, individual, improvised feat of skill. The atmosphere of his pictures-as with other works of art-is the condensed substance of human activities and nothing else.
Translation by Peter Doherty
Fabian Lasarzik
(…) The concept of the Ruhr Region did not become established until around 1930. It is not a geographical or administrative term, but refers to the watershed of the Ruhr or more properly of the Emscher. The Ruhr region seems to be more a “perceived” region that connects people. It is these commonalities in their micro- and macro-like aspects and stratifications that Schumacher documents as chronicler and artist.
Joachim Schumacher’s paintings are characterized by a documentary approach; his subject is more landscape than urban photography. The motifs are brownfields in their characteristic blend of remnants of nature and industrial relics. He photographs the city with its streets and rows of houses, characterized by rapid changes in their use, in much the same way. The pictures are always almost unpeopled, they seem deserted, basically, and the diffuse, unchanging light adds to this impression. The landscape has been dramatically altered by humans and appears detached, sober and somewhat distant. Many views are striking for their preposterous dreariness, with their innumerable satellite dishes, with lots of grey concrete and cheap posters next to the facade of a betting shop.
Though often bordering on satire, the pictures do not incite laughter. However, the viewer is not appalled by the sadness. A peculiar dignity, indeed a kind of beauty of the real inhabits the images. They get their power in part from the fact that they skilfully and confidently resist the suggestions of the photographs commissioned by the city and regional marketing agencies. Perhaps in this way Schumacher’s pictures satisfy a longing for the real and authentic. He goes looking for his motives on his bike, by the way, wherever “people live their ordinary lives”
There is a remarkable calmness in Schumacher’s pictures, an equanimity without indifference. An almost contemplative mood that is sustained by his in some cases absolutely straight alignments (as in the Emscherkanal pictures) or the broad vistas. Schumacher is a consummate chronicler and he is committed to that role. His aim is to be as authentic as possible. His carefully considered pictures are well-proportioned, neither ugly nor pretty. Instead they show an inner “normality” that describes the home of the photographer as “of this world”. Not in the sense of “everywhere else is just as bad” but rather in the sense of “finally like everywhere else”. But even that does not do justice to the pictures, because they have an inner authority in that they seem authentic even without a semantic superstructure. It is clear that photography cannot copy truth, but for the photographer this discipline “comes closer”. Schumacher’s pictures depict truths that are likely to be consensus when it comes to places “of this world”: places in continuous rapid change. Places that are constantly exposed to deformations and have little to do with a framed city landscape, and yet, despite all profanity, are home.
It is striking-and here you can see the expert who has dealt extensively with the region for 40 years- that when choosing his motifs he is careful to ensure a representative mix of the views characteristic of the Ruhr region. These include typical materials such as concrete and asphalt, green areas such as lawns, trees and shrubs, traffic routes such as rail and roads and the facades and shaft towers of former industrial plants. Schumacher is a specialist in the iconography of that landscape. “Photography must focus more on the real, otherwise it swims with painting,” he says. So there are never any overexposures meant to achieve strong effects. Everything remains sober, and there is poetry in that sobriety. Like an archaeologist. Schumacher exposes layers of time. (…)
It should be stressed at this point that colour photography meant a different challenge for Joachim Schumacher than the black and white photography that he was previously so versed in. Colour is more real, colour is emotion, it is much harder to control and quickly distracts one from the essence. Colour evokes strong emotions, unlike structure and form, and the photographer has to keep them under control and not give too much weight to the colour. Schumacher’s colour photographs show how skilfully he has taken up that challenge.
The question is why Schumacher as a professed chronicler did not discover colour photography earlier, especially since it is hardly imaginable that he would have given preference to black and white photographs for sentimental or purely aesthetic reasons. The answer is quite trivial: it was not until the 1990s that colour-fast enlargements could be made, ones that would not change colour when archived. It was around that time that Schumacher began to produce large images in colour.
Schumacher’s pictures allow the observer to read from the public and semipublic, but never private views the marks that past and present have left on the region. The concurrent existence of past, present and future is revealed in a mixture peculiar to the region. This is reflected in all the pictures, which bear witness to major urban transformations while also showing individual, to some extent improvised construction works. This almost creates the impression of a somewhat makeshift, coziness, revealing a kind of deeper beauty, individuality and humanity - like a small owner-operated business with individual signage in the middle of a large shopping mall. Ultimately it shows that what is photographed is the result of human activity in many forms, from the great economic design to the small, individual, improvised feat of skill. The atmosphere of his pictures-as with other works of art-is the condensed substance of human activities and nothing else.
Translation by Peter Doherty
Opening :
July 2nd , 2016, from 11 am to 6 . The artist will be present.
mpefm
GERMANY art press release
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