In 2012 Anne Schönharting began photographing the residents of Charlottenburg in their natural habitat. For more than ten years she photographed people and their apartments in deeply traditional neighborhood, known as one of Berlin´s “better” districts. Those portrayed must have liked the photographer’s quiet but determined way of working and recommended her to others. In her carefully composed images, we see people and their homes in wondrous situations. Women, men, couples, families, students, children — all in their own unique style. Sometimes we just see the view of an empty room, a window, or a door. They tell us about the people who usually live there but are absent at the moment. The text by Inka Schube delicately senses these moods and puts them in a literary context. Anne Schönharting shows the people opposite her without prejudice, at a natural distance and at eye level. The appearance of the large-format book designed by Stefan Stefanescu is deliberately reminiscent of book design in Berlin in the 1920s.
Anne Schönharting (*1973) joined the agency OSTKREUZ – Agentur der Fotografen in 1999. Her focus is on portrait – and artistic documentary photography. In addition to her personal long-term projects, she also works on assignment for national and international clients. In 2020, Hartmann Books published her award-winning first book “The Legacy”, an exploration of her family’s colonial past.
Exhibitions
Goethe-Institut Bordeaux, September 30, 2023–February 9, 2024
Villa Oppenheim, Berlin-Charlottenburg, February 9–May 21, 2023
Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin, October13–Mid December 2022
Selected Press
LFI-Dec