ABOUT

In Michael Schmidt's view, Berlin is a vast urban space that has not yet been filled in again after its destruction in the Second World War, if at all. Gaps between houses and firewalls are reminders of the magnificent buildings that once stood there. The photographer shows unadorned new buildings, barren open spaces, deserted street aisles and the ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof railway station. Schmidt documents the way in which the war is still present decades later - in the absence of humane living spaces for the city's inhabitants. Berlin after 1945, created in 1980, is a major work by Michael Schmidt and is published here in its entirety for the first time. With a visual language comparable to that of his fellow photographers of the "New Topographics", Schmidt focuses on urban landscapes that have been moulded and shaped by people. He shows "karst mountains in city locations" (Janos Frecot), whose cultural and social structures have been erased and which in turn shape and mould the people who live in them.