Good Prospects for Young Photography

Having just closed its doors at the NRW-Forum Dusseldorf, the touring exhibition gute aussichten / good prospects – New German Photography 2016/2017 is swiftly moving on to its next venue. On 9 March 2017, the show opens at the Haus der Photographie, Deichtorhallen Hamburg with an evening reception starting at 19.00. It will subsequently be on display until 1 May 2017.

For the 13th edition of gute aussichten, an eight-strong jury selected seven outstanding works which exuded the message ‘Integrate Yourselves!’ It is a call to recognise the foreign within ourselves, and ourselves within the foreign. Some participants, such as Finnish-born Miia Autio and Holger Jenss from Tubingen, Germany, travelled to Africa. Others, such as Chris Becher, Julia Steinigeweg and Andreas Hopfgarten, looked for the unfamiliar close to home. Carmen Catuti, who was born in Romania and lives in Berlin, travelled through Georgia. Quoc-Van Ninh – born in Germany to a Vietnamese father and Chinese mother – visited Vietnam, only to find that the sense of foreignness he carries within himself was just as present there.

What they all have in common is that they, as strangers in alien surroundings, recognise a part of themselves within the unfamiliar. What initially might seem so strange, disconcerting, incomprehensible or mysterious becomes the opposite as soon as we begin to take a closer look. The only things that can remain foreign are those to which we close our eyes.

For further information visit Deichtorhallen Hamburg and gute aussichten