BERLIN.- Galerie Springer Berlin is opening the exhibition An den Strömen (At the Streams) by Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler on October 3 to mark the EMOP European Month of Photography Berlin 2020. This new and previously unpublished series emerged from the summer of 2019 onwards for the exhibition Kontinent – Auf der Suche nach Europa (Continent – in search of Europe) by the Ostkreuz photographers’ agency at the Academy of Arts (10/02/2020 - 01/10/2021).

For this series, both photographers toured Europe’s major rivers and streams – the Elbe, Rhine/Waal, Danube, Po and Volga – where social, ecological, political, economic and historical themes become apparent and enable both artists to create a superlative portrait of Europe. In images that are both emotionally powerful and photographically impressive, they depict extracts from life, architecture, and portraits along Europe’s biggest streams. The artists started at the Elbe, the Rhine and the Danube in Bulgaria in 2019. The Po followed that autumn and in February 2020 they continued on their journey to the Volga. Visits to other rivers – the Rhône, Dnieper and Tagus – are planned.

Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler who have been working together for a few years now are photographing the series in black and white with an analogue large-format camera. In parallel with the exhibition at the Academy of Arts, Galerie Springer Berlin is showing a selection from this series in a 92 x 115 cm format.




In July this year, Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler photographed their first fashion spread for 27 years, this time for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazine. The series came about at a small location on the Elbe. Both photographers again took black-and-white pictures using a large-format camera. Sections of this new, unusual and outstanding series will provide a stunning complement to the exhibition.

Ute Mahler (b. 1949), 1969–74, photographic studies, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig; since 1974, freelance photographer; 2000, professor of photography, Hamburg University of Applied Sciences (HAW Hamburg); since 2005, lecturer at the Ostkreuzschule.

Werner Mahler (b. 1950), 1973–78, photographic studies, Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig; since 1978, freelance photographer; 2005, founder of the Ostkreuzschule for Photography, Berlin; school director and lecturer.

Ute and Werner Mahler: 1990, founding members of the OSTKREUZ agency; 2014, work exhibition at the House of Photography, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, at the Rostock Art Gallery, and many more besides.