Joachim Brohm

Joachim Brohm
Installation AREAL, Fotomuseum Winterthur 2002,

Collection Fotomuseum Winterthur
2003-010-000

© Joachim Brohm / 2007 Pro Litteris, Zürich

b. 1955 (Duelken, DE), lives and works in Leipzig, DE
Between 1992 and 2002, Joachim Brohm, who is currently a professor at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, undertook Areal, a long-term urban project of photographing the same area—about 600×600 meters—on the edge of a large German city. Over the course of the decade, the area was transformed from a 1950s’ industrial zone to a desirable residential area, with high-quality services and infrastructure. Brohm studied the area with the patience of a botanist and the curious eye of a flâneur: the courtyards, the piles of discarded junk, the heaps of rubble, then the bare ground, the geometrical street plans, and the construction phases of the new buildings.