MICHAEL KERSTGENS. OUT OF CONTROL

Duration: Mar 8 – May 11, 2025

Opening: Friday, March 7, 2025, 7 pm

ACCOMPANYING PROGRAMME

SAT, 08.03., 3 pm

GALLERY TALK with MICHAEL KERSTGENS and CELINA LUNSFORD

FRI, 04.04., 6 pm

DIALOGUE »GB 84« JOACHIM KRÓL and MICHAEL KERSTGENS. Joachim Król reads from the novel by David Peace and Michael Kerstgens shows photographs of the Miners‘ Strike 1984.

WED, 23.04., 6 pm

LECTURE »PHOTOGRAPHY OF PARTICIPATION« with MICHAEL KERSTGENS

TUE, 25.03., 22.04., and 06.05., 3 pm

CURATOR’S TOURS with CELINA LUNSFORD or ANDREA HORVAY

Michael Kerstgens grew up in Mülheim a.d. Ruhr and became known for his photographs of the British miners’ strike of 1984/85. It was here that he lived with a family of strikers, which influenced his photographic development and his own outlook on society. Moving into professional photography at the same time, Kerstgens worked as a photographer with artists from the North Rhine-Westphalian cultural scene.

In 1987 he photographed the steelworkers’ strike in Duisburg- Rheinhausen and in 1990 the changes in the Thuringian town of Mühlhausen in the run-up to German reunification. The transformation of the landscape through industrial, economic or environmental influences also plays a major role in Michael Kerstgens’ photographs.

As a freelance photographer, Michael Kerstgens worked internationally in the magazine and corporate fields before devoting himself to teaching. After academic assignments in Frisia and Dessau, he has been Professor of Photography at University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt from 2007 until 2025.

Curated by Celina Lunsford in collaboration with Michael Kerstgens, the exhibition MICHAEL KERSTGENS. OUT OF CONTROL presents more than 100 photographs from four decades of work, which convey Michael Kerstgens’s insight into themes of radical change and relevance, bringing sensitivity to the times we live.

The exhibition will be complemented by projections, numerous publications by the photographer and various programming events.