Close Up

• Michael Jordan
  © Martin Schoeller, AUGUST / Courtesy of CAMERA WORK Gallery
• Vitali Klitschko
  © Martin Schoeller, AUGUST / Courtesy of CAMERA WORK Gallery
• Susan Sarandon
  © Martin Schoeller, AUGUST / Courtesy of CAMERA WORK Gallery
• Brad Pitt
  © Martin Schoeller, AUGUST / Courtesy of CAMERA WORK Gallery
• Salman Rushdie
  © Martin Schoeller, AUGUST / Courtesy of CAMERA WORK Gallery

More than 50 photographs by Martin Schoeller are on view at the Camera Work Gallery in Berlin from August 26 to October 7, 2023. The presentation comprises excerpts from the artist’s world-famous ‘Close Up’ series, which has been ongoing for 25 years to date. Most of the displayed portraits have not been featured in any previous exhibition.

Martin Schoeller, who is represented exclusively by CAMERA WORK, ranks among the world’s most renowned portrait photographers. His award-winning projects and fine-art series are tied together by an unmistakeable visual style. All of the protagonists in the artist’s ‘Close Up’ series are photographed within the same technical set-up, using the identical camera angle and lighting. This creates what the photographer describes as a “level platform, where a viewer’s existing notions of celebrity, values, and honesty are challenged.” Rank and status become secondary – instead, the sitter’s personality comes to the fore, allowing for a profound immediate encounter.

The exhibition at CAMERA WORK encompasses impressive portraits of the most influential artists, athletes and politicians of our time – from Susan Sarandon, Jane Fonda and Bruce Springsteen, to Michael Jordan, Vitali Klitschko and Salman Rushdie.
For the first time, the exhibited works are accompanied by one-off polaroids captured at the respective shoots. These unique images of, amongst others, Angelina Jolie, Barack Obama or Lionel Messi further illustrate the authenticity that defines the final Close Up portraits, and the entirety of Martin Schoeller’s work.