About

Since 1987 I have been working as a photo artist and photo journalist for German and international media. The most important photographs from my work are divided into cycles and develop over the years from an interplay of independent and commissioned works, book and exhibition projects.

Statement

The focus of my photography is the human being. From different directions, I intuitively approach my "surroundings". The result is a contemporary "document" of a world that nourishes me through its social changes and the global turn of time of the last decades. My work is divided into at least four cycles, which in turn consist of individual series. These develop over the years from an interplay of independent and commissioned works, book and exhibition projects. "Power and Ritual" deals with social stagings in politics, church, demimonde, economy and the media. The scenes in "Black East Wild West" lie at the intersections of the secular and the sacred, on moving masses and moving people and their search for "salvation". In the series " Unbedeutende Persönlichkeiten" ("Insignificant Personalities"), the portraits in the series draw their tension from the interplay of portrayed acquaintances and well-known personalities, the closeness and distance and the transience of the moment. In the latest cycle "Digitalis", the transition from the analogue to the digital age is "documented" in various series from different directions, with the associated dissolution of the authenticity of photography.

Education

  • 1990 | Diplom, FH Dortmund (DE)
  • 1983 - 1990 | Studium Fotografie an der FH Dortmund (DE)

Institution (Work Experience)

  • 2001 - heute | Vorträge, Workshops und Talkrunden an Hochschulen und Festivals
  • 1998 - heute | Mitglied bei Fotografenagentur VISUM (DE)
  • 1993 - 1997 | Mitglied bei der Fotoagentur laif (DE)

Selected Awards

  • 2001 | Gabriel-Grüner-Stipendium (DE)
  • 2000 | 1. Kölner Medienpreis (DE)
  • 1999 | Oskar-Barnack-Preis 1999, Endrunde der besten 10 (DE)
  • 1998 | Wissenschaft Visuell 98 (DE)
  • 1990 | Zeit-Photopreis, Hamburg (DE)

Selected Exhibitions/Publications

  • Ausstellungen / Exhibitions:
  • 2017 | In focus Galerie, Art Karlsruhe (DE)
  • 2017 | Complesso del Vittoriano, Rom (IT)
  • 2017 | Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Madrid (ES)
  • 2016 | LVR Landesmuseum Bonn (DE)
  • 2015 | Galerie Ostlicht Wien (AT)
  • 2015 | C / O Berlin (DE)
  • 2015 | Fotografie Forum Frankfurt (DE)
  • 2014 | Deichtorhallen, Hamburg (DE)
  • 2011 | Kunsthaus Rhenania, Köln (DE)
  • 2006 | van der grinten galerie, Cologne Fine Art (DE)
  • 2006 | Kölnisches Stadtmuseum (DE)
  • 2005 | 7. Internationale Fototage, Mannheim (DE)
  • 2004 | Leica Gallery Prague (CZ)
  • 2001 | van der grinten galerie, Messe kunstKöln (DE)
  • 1996 | Kunsthaus Rhenania, Köln (DE)
  • Publikationen / Publications:
  • 2013 | Wahl Kampf Ritual, Monographie, Edition Panorama, Mannheim (DE)
  • 2011 | Deutschland im Fotobuch, Verlag Steidl (DE)
  • 1999 | Theaterszene Jahrbuch, SK Stiftung/M7-Verlag, Köln (DE)
  • 1997 | Bernd Arnold - Das Kölner Heil, Schaden Verlag (DE)

Personal Website

http://www.berndarnold.de

Artist Talk | Bernd Arnold – Macht und Ritual (Deutsche Version)

Artist Talk | Bernd Arnold – Macht und Ritual (Deutsche Version)

Project Talk: Bernd Arnold – Power and Ritual Interview by Peter Feldhaus (Sonic Blog), 2009. - German Version -

Format:

PDF Presentation

Artist Talk | Bernd Arnold – Power and Ritual (English Version)

Artist Talk | Bernd Arnold – Power and Ritual (English Version)

Project Talk: Bernd Arnold – Power and Ritual Interview by Peter Feldhaus (Sonic Blog), 2009. - English Version -

Format:

PDF Presentation

Works

Bernd Arnold | Power and Ritual - Cologne Salvation (1986 - 1997)

Bernd Arnold | Power and Ritual - Cologne Salvation (1986 - 1997)

The hermetic and hierarchic world of the clergy of the Cologne Cathedral is marked by merit and mercy, by sorrow and hope, by sin and salvation. The pictures analyse the power structures of an autonomic system of salvation, surviving seemingly untouched by all developments of our century.

Format:

Photo / Video

Bernd Arnold | Power and Ritual - Election Campaigns (1986 - 2017)

Bernd Arnold | Power and Ritual - Election Campaigns (1986 - 2017)

The election campaigns for the German Bundestag are an ideal occasion to explore strategies of production and self-production across all political parties. This cycle is a work about the endeavour of shading light on the precisely calculated gestures of the actors of these public orchestration, their success in radiate aspects of power and its fascination. These photographs expose politics as theatre. These are pictures of the chancellors Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel and the challengers Franz Josef Strauss, Hans Jochen Vogel, Johannes Rau, Oskar Lafontaine, Rudolf Scharping, Edmund Stoiber, Fank-Walter Steinmeier, Peer Steinbrück and Martin Schulz.

Format:

Photo / Video

Bernd Arnold | Black East Wild West (2006 - 2019)

Bernd Arnold | Black East Wild West (2006 - 2019)

Dark mass, bizarre situations, shadowy portraits and questionable details vary between the real and the fictional. In Western Europe, the interfaces (entrance/exit) between the secular and the sacral were in former centuries the portals of the cathedrals. Nowadays, the interfaces are more in shopping streets and mass events where human fates are in search of salvation. The growing globalization of the last decades promises more independency and individualism. But is this really true? Are the dependency and synchronization of each other are really less than before?

Format:

Photo / Video

Bernd Arnold | Portrait and Portrait Series (2011 - 2019)

Bernd Arnold | Portrait and Portrait Series (2011 - 2019)

Portrait Series XIII - Artists at the Cologne Kunsthaus Rhenania The portraits in series draw their tension from the interplay of portrayed acquaintances and well-known personalities, closeness and distance. The selection of the portraits follows the randomness of the encounters and the transience of the moments.

Format:

Photo / Video