Short Bio

Amélie Schneider is the Photographic Director of DIE ZEIT, Germany’s biggest weekly newspaper. During the last twelve years, she has worked at several German print magazines, among them titles such as GEO and Nido. Previously, Amélie Schneider was the head of the photo department at NEON, the cult publication which helped shape the voice of contemporary photography on the German print market. She holds a BFA in Visual Communication from ABKM Maastricht Academy of Fine Arts, The Netherlands, and is a jury member of several international awards such as „Gute Aussichten - junge deutsche Fotografie“, Otto-Steinert-Preis, Henri-Nannen-Preis, and the Swiss Press Photo Award. Amélie Schneider lives and works in Hamburg.

Curatorial Statement

'"A touching image“ is an expression that often comes up in our everyday life. Actual touch or the longing for it is the connecting element of all the photographs that I have compiled here. Holding a snowball in one’s hand, stroking a cliff are striking allegories for this concept. Other images focus on materiality, a bust is touched by light, the cosmos is untouchable, so very dark and distant. The longing to be touched by nature is the main theme here. I perceive a humble sensuality in the curl of a boy's hair or lambswool, contrasting images that depict isolation and monotonous, constructed space. The sun in my face, feeling the wind in my hair, salt on skin, these are clichés, but they describe the need to be in contact with something pure in an honest way... I adore photography, but I know that nature and the vastness that I see in these pictures is in reality a maximally intense sensory experience. These works remind me that I am a person who wants to be outside, and while I have to endure the distance to nature in urban space, I can also touch things like a four-year-old can touch an earthworm."

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