New Photography Biennial Launches in Three German Cities

A new Biennial for Contemporary Photography will launch on September 9 across Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg, Germany, replacing the previous Fotofestival that began in 2005. The first edition is titled 'Goodbye Photography,' aiming to examine image-making in the digital age and offer an alternative perspective on photographic history. Six curators—Florian Ebner, Christin Müller, Fabian Knierim, Boaz Levin, Kerstin Meincke, and Kathrin Schönegg—stated: 'Our curatorial team sees the current revolution in visual culture as an opportunity to subject photography to a critical examination in order to redefine it.' Müller added that the exhibition addresses the social and artistic use of the medium in the era of networked and digital images, while also looking back at 175 years of analog photography. Sixty artists have been invited, and seven institutions across the three central German cities are participating. The biennial runs until November 5. Future editions will follow the same format, inviting guest curators every two years to explore new responses to photographic themes.