The exhibition by the young photographer Esther Haase is devoted to Tango dance. In comparison, the 40 portrait photographs of the 87 year old photographer Susanne Schapowalow, offer us fascinating insight into the time when Rock n' Roll was still named Jazz.
From January 24th to February 28th 2009, Camera Work gallery will present work by
Esther Haase and Susanne Schapowalow.
The exhibition, with photographs by the young photographer Esther Haase, is devoted to
Tango dance. Esther Haase’s vivid photographs reflect the dynamic of dance. During her
training to become a ballet dancer, she very early on discovered her love for dance as “a
direct and intimate medium of expression”. The artist’s photographs are not about
acrobatic performance, but rather about the passion, the desire, the freedom, the eroticism
and the dedication of the body during the length of a dance. Esther Haase stages the joy of
the body and therefore its resulting eroticism, with dancers and models in the original
scenery of local bars and in the milongas between Buenos Aires, Havanna and Santiago.
George Bernhard Shaw fittingly described Tango with the following words : “ Tango is the
vertical expression of horizontal desire”.
Esther Haase completed her classical dance training at the national academy in Cologne
and subsequently danced on stage for many years. From 1988 to 1993 she studied at the
Hochschule der Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) in Bremen. She then worked for the Art
Department of Vogue Men in Munich. Since 1993 she has been working as a photographer
and travels around the world for her assignments. For her work, Esther Haase has received
numerous national and international distinctions and prizes such as the Reinhard-Wolf
Prize, the Art Directors Club (ADC) Gold and the Kodak Photo prize.
In comparison, the 40 portrait photographs of the 87 year old photographer Susanne
Schapowalow, offer us fascinating insight into the time when Rock n’ Roll was still named Jazz and was still a worldwide movement. These photographs have never been shown fully
enlarged before. With a closeness to the artist that is today unthinkable, the portraits show
famous jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Miles Davis
or Quincy Jones, whose band she accompanied for two months as it toured throughout
Europe. Her close friendship with her subject, such as Duke Ellington or Chet Baker
allowed her to render the unique concert atmosphere but also an extraordinarily intimate
view of behind the scenes and of the private lives of the musicians.
The two photographs of the famous German jazz trumpeter Fred Bunge in the ruined
landscape of bombed Hamburg show a post-war era, in which the staunch and authentic will
to live and start over is visible, beyond the expensive staging/production of today.
The exhibition will be completed with portraits of significant people such as Ernst
Rowohlt, Igor Strawinsky or Albert Schweitzer—the latter having had allowed the once
young photographer to take only two pictures of him. Or Orson Welles who interpreted in
Hamburg the offer of marriage to Ruth Niehaus, the German Rita Hayworth of the 1950s.
Born in 1922 in Berlin, the artist has been working since the 1940s as a photographer for
newspapers and magazines such as Kristall, Stern, Der Spiegel or GEO. The highlights of
her work were jazz, architecture and new music. Over the years, a vast photo archive was
compiled; the first part is accessible. At the end of the 1960s the photographer founded
the “Photo Agency Susanne Schapowalow” with an emphasis on “worldwide tourism”.
After many successful years, she eventually sold the agency in 2003. The artist now lives
in Bad Malente.
Attached you will find press photographs which you may use for publication purposes. A right
to use these press photographs for publication can only be granted in connection with a
reference to the exhibition at Camera Work and the use of corresponding captions. In
addition, Camera Work explicitly stipulates that the provided photographic material may in
no way be altered or cropped.
We would be happy to welcome you to this exhibition at our gallery. Both artists will be
present at the opening and will be available for interviews after prior arrangement.
Camera Work Gallery
Kantstrabe 149 - Berlin
Hours Tues. – Sat. 11:00am to 6pm
Free admission