Photography in Reconstruction: Photography Exhibitions in Post-war West Germany

The 1950s claims the photographic medium as protean. Since 1950, the photo fair in Cologne called photokina has shown, without distinction, artistic photography and applied practices, historical and contemporary works. L. Fritz Gruber at photokina or Otto Steinert with the well-known Subjektive Fotografie exhibitions use scenography to give meaning to this diversity. Historical photography is matted or in display cases. Works that would be modern are displayed as the Bauhaus did. Wallpaper is preferred to the usual photographic print for popular photography. These scenographic models are not new, but demonstrate how this typology becomes a norm and challenges the unity claimed up by the photographic field.