In Conversation: Franziska Stünkel and Walter Vogel

January 21, 2025

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Leica I, Franziska Stünkel speaks of Walter Vogel’s work and enthuses about the emotional power of his images.
Each month a chosen Leica Gallery will host an exhibition bringing together a talented contemporary photographer with a Leica Hall of Fame winner. The series of exhibitions will be launched at the Leica Gallery Frankfurt. Photographer Franziska Stünkel explains what it is that connects her to Walter Vogel, and which of the selected pieces of work impressed her most. 

“It is an honour for me to have my photographs linked to those of Walter Vogel, one of the pioneers of street photography. I find Vogel’s work fascinating, above all because of the way he captures scenes of daily life with precise documentary clarity and artistic sensitivity. His images move me. Like myself, Vogel works with a Leica M. We’re both street photographers. For this exhibition, I travelled to some of his locations, including Paris, Florence and New York. It wasn’t about repeating the photographs, but about staying true to my own visual language. I photographed reflections on glass, as I’ve been doing for 15 years. In some cases, I also visited very specific places in his pictures, such as the Caffé Gilli in Florence or Ground Zero in New York. The World Trade Centre was still standing in his photographs. How close he got to the people and places in his photographs was always in my thoughts.

The Walter Vogel picture I like best is a black and white one from 1973. It shows the entrance to the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret in Paris, with striking lettering reading “Festival”. There appears to be a group of curious people waiting to be allowed in. A half-closed fence stands in front of the entrance, acting like an obstacle; both access and barrier to the world of glamour. What spectacles and amusements are hidden inside this legendary place? Vogel succeeds in creating an almost sad contrast between the exuberant expectations and the rather sober-looking reality of those waiting. It’s marvellous how the forms, lines and emotions in the photo are reduced to the essential, without losing their complex expressions. In the exhibition, a photograph of mine can be seen in juxtaposition – a reflection of the equally legendary Palais des Festival in Cannes. Though taken many decades later, the photograph seems to evoke very similar thoughts and feelings.”
Text: Franziska Stünkel; Image: Walter Vogel

In Conversation+-

Leica100

The exhibition at the Leica Gallery Frankfurt runs from January 17 to March 29, 2025.
 

Franziska Stünkel+-

Porträt Franziska Stünkel. © Marc Ewig
© Marc Ewig

The German photo artist, film director and scriptwriter studied Fine Arts in Kassel and in Hanover. Her pictures are found in renown galleries and exhibition institutions, a well as private and public collections, including the collection of the Sprengel Museum in Hanover. The Audi Art Award and the Berlin Hyp Award are among the honours she has received for her photographic work. In 2023, Stünkel was nominated for the Beyond Future Art Prize, the Louis Roederer Photography Prize and the Prix Pictet Photography Award. In 2020, Kehrer Verlag published her photo book, Coexist.  More

Walter Vogel+-

01_© Christin Schuster
© Christin Schuster

...was born in Düsseldorf on October 18, 1932. After an apprenticeship as a machinist, he worked as a mechanical engineer. He studied Photography with Otto Steinert at the Folkwangschule from 1963 to 1968. After he graduated, he became a freelance photojournalist in Düsseldorf. In 1954, he acquired a Leica IIf, though an M2 was later to become his preferred reportage camera. A Leicaflex SL2, Leicaflex SL2 MOT and a Leica M5 further expanded his equipment. His work was first published in newspapers, as early as 1954; and, in 1964, he received a World Press Photo Award. His atelier was in Frankfurt from 1977 to 2002, after which he returned to Düsseldorf. Vogel gave most of his estate to the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation in 2016, where it is cared for by the bpk, Bildagentur für Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte (Picture Agency for Art, Culture and History). The photographer was honoured with the Leica Hall of Fame Award in 2019. More

 

In Conversation: Franziska Stünkel and Walter Vogel