People & Their Stories

Portraits of hundreds of different people – from Germany’s Ruhr region to Africa, Asia and the Middle East – are lined up in the Glass Arcade of the Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen to form one vast and multifaceted narrative. The exhibition ‘Menschengeschichten’ (Human Histories), which is on display until June 25, 2022, comprises excerpts from the oeuvre of Mülheim-based photographer Heiner Schmitz, spanning more than four decades.

“Heiner Schmitz is a photographer who is primarily interested in people: in their circumstances, but also in the person that they are. With his images, he advocates for minorities and the oppressed,” says the exhibition’s curator, Peter Liedtke.

The featured series were created in the years from 1964 to the present day. Viewers will encounter barbers living and working in the mountains of Lycia near the Turkish coast, travellers in North Africa and the Middle East, as well as Beijing residents who have (so far) been spared forced relocation from their traditional Hutong homes. The images show Bedouin families in the Israeli military’s ‘combat zones’ in northern Jordan, people who live along the eight-metre-high West Bank Wall, Roma families who fled the Bosnian war in the mid-nineties – and other immigrants who have brought the memories of their homeland to their new lives in Mülheim’s Eppinghofen district.

For further information visit Wissenschaftspark Gelsenkirchen