The international reception of the subjective photography movement in the 1950s and the work of Otto Steinert, its most important proponent, have been an important reference point for Galerie Kicken for decades. Building on this foundation, we were able to bring together numerous diverse works related to his aesthetic in the show subjektive fotografie. Adventures in the Visual Field. The positive resonance our survey found among visitors, collectors, and institutions was the best possible confirmation of our conviction of the great significance of this second avant-garde. We thus invite an interested audience to experience even more “Wagnisse des Optischen” – adventures in the visual field – as Steinert himself so aptly put it. With subjektive fotografie 2. More Adventures in the Visual Field the gallery is publishing a catalogue with an introduction by Carolin Förster, and an original essay by Otto Steinert from 1955. In his text, “On the Creative Possibilities of Photography,” his only written statement on the subject, Steinert summarizes both his methodic principles and his understanding of photographic refinement in several degrees from simple “reproductive photographic image” to the “absolute photographic creation.”
