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Photography – The Oeuvre
Photography – The Oeuvre
March 30, 2026
Christa Mayer: Carsten and Rabbit, 1996, from the series Abwesende II, 1987-1996
© Christa Mayer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Over the past four decades, photographer and psychologist Christa Mayer has created an unmistakeable and multi-faceted oeuvre. The exhibition brings together colour and black-and-white images from various series, including key bodies of work such as Abwesende I / II (1979–1996), Heilende (1982–1989), Kreative (1987), and Kinder (1987–1992). These are complemented by landscape photographs (spanning from 1982 to 2011) as well as abstract compositions (from 2007 onwards). Text-and-image combinations expand the scope of her portraiture, while urban landscapes and portraits form the centre of her video projects Ex Oriente Lux (1992) and Abwesende (2025).
Mayer occupies an exceptional position within German auteur photography of the 1980s and 1990s. She developed her progressive artistic signature in the early 1980s while studying at the legendary “Werkstatt für Photographie” – a forward-thinking platform at the Volkshochschule Kreuzberg in Berlin, where she became one of few women to establish herself in this competitive environment.
The exhibition Fotografie – Das Werk (Photography – The Oeuvre) at the Haus am Kleistpark was curated by Carolin Förster. A monograph of the same title was released by Distanz Publishing in 2025, edited by Carolin Förster and featuring texts by Carolin Förster, Thomas Weski, Maren Lübbke-Tidow, and Barbara Esch Marowski.
Katrin UllmannMayer occupies an exceptional position within German auteur photography of the 1980s and 1990s. She developed her progressive artistic signature in the early 1980s while studying at the legendary “Werkstatt für Photographie” – a forward-thinking platform at the Volkshochschule Kreuzberg in Berlin, where she became one of few women to establish herself in this competitive environment.
The exhibition Fotografie – Das Werk (Photography – The Oeuvre) at the Haus am Kleistpark was curated by Carolin Förster. A monograph of the same title was released by Distanz Publishing in 2025, edited by Carolin Förster and featuring texts by Carolin Förster, Thomas Weski, Maren Lübbke-Tidow, and Barbara Esch Marowski.
Christa Mayer: Carsten and Rabbit, 1996, from the series Abwesende II, 1987-1996
© Christa Mayer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Christa Mayer: Buffalo Cow, Varanasi, India 2001
© Christa Mayer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Christa Mayer: Point Reyes, California, USA 2006
© Christa Mayer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025
Christa Mayer: Boy and Dog, Istanbul, Turkey 1992
© Christa Mayer/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025