About

I was born and raised in Leipzig. After studying photography at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst, I completed additional studies at the Gesamthochschule Essen in 1990. In the same year, I was a founding member of the photographer agency Punctum, of which I am currently managing director. Since 2005 I have been teaching as a lecturer at the FAS as well as, since its foundation in 2007, at the Neue Schule für Fotografie Berlin.

Statement

Photography is an expression of my relationship to the world. It consists of discovering and preserving things that seem to be endangered at the time they are photographed. With my pictures I thus raise questions about the meaning of human action. By dealing with art and culture, the special view for the contemporary and for what of it is historically significant grew. Everyday and industrial culture are essential subjects. The work Kulpoche - synonym for the epoch of the late GDR - stands for my concern. On the other hand, it also reflects a preservation of farewells. In the series Carrara I show a bizarrely beautiful, man-made environmental catastrophe. At the time of photographing, I regarded this as a tragic actual state. The central motif is the price nature and landscape - and thus man - have to pay for the continuing marble quarrying. My photographic view of works of fine art is primarily concerned with the sculptural. This has been reflected, among other things, in my photo essay about the figure world of the Italian Sacri Monti. The works of art are of central importance to me. For the photographs of the Transmission series, I depicted the infrastructure of wireless communication. Even if electromagnetic waves are invisible, they exist, visibly present through the devices of their utilization. Besides, they are also hallmarks of the permanent accessibility of each individual in globalized communication. The sculpturally photographed antennas and radio masts are at the same time lures for the viewer, who might soon ask himself something: What will follow this beautiful technique?

Education

  • 1990 | Zusatzstudium „Kommunikationsdesign“ bei Professorin Angela Neuke, Gesamthochschule Essen (DE)
  • 1988 - 90 | Zusatzstudium „Farbfotografie“, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig (DE)
  • 1981 - 87 | „Fotografie“, Fachstudium bei Evelyn Richter und Arno Fischer, Diplom bei Evelyn Richter, Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, Fachstudium bei Evelyn Richter und Arno Fischer, Diplom bei Evelyn Richter (DE)

Institution (Work Experience)

  • 2007 - heute | Dozent für Fotografie an der Neuen Schule für Fotografie Berlin (DE)
  • 2005 - 07 | Dozent für Fotografie an der fas Berlin (DE)
  • 2003 | Berufung in die Deutsche Fotografische Akademie (DE)
  • 1990 | Mitbegründer der Fotografenagentur PUNCTUM Leipzig (DE), seither Geschäftsführer
  • 1990 - heute | freischaffender Fotograf

Selected Awards

  • 2013 | "Architekturbild - Anerkennungspreis", Europäischer Architekturfotografie-Preis, Frankfurt (DE)
  • 2011 | „Best photograph of the 54th International Art Exibition“, Biennale Venedig (IT)
  • 1997 | „Kodak Fotokalender-Preis“, Stuttgart (DE)

Selected Exhibitions/Publications

  • Ausstellungen / Exhibitions:
  • 2019 | Zentrum für Baukultur, Dresden (DE)
  • 2019 | Bucerius Kunstforum Hamburg (DE)
  • 2018 | Sächsischer Landtag, Dresden (DE)
  • 2017 | Lindenaumuseum, Altenburg (DE)
  • 2015 | Galerie Irrgang, Berlin (DE)
  • 2012 – heute | Wanderausstellung Industriearchitektur in Sachsen (DE)
  • 2012 | J+A Gallery, Dubai (AE)
  • 2011 | Kreis für Kunst und Kultur, St. Ulrich (IT)
  • 2010 | Haus am Dom, Frankfurt am Main (DE)
  • 2008 | Deutscher Werkbund Sachsen, Dresden-Hellerau (DE)
  • 2007 | Galerie Infocus, Köln (DE)
  • 2003 | Galerie Elten und Elten, Zürich (CH)
  • 2000 | Artscan Gallery, Housten (US)
  • 1996 | Goethe-Institut Bratislava (SK)
  • Publikationen / Publications:
  • 2018 | Industriearchitektur in Sachsen, Verlag der Kunst, Dresden (DE)
  • 2014 | Transmission, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld (DE)
  • 2009 | Sacri Monti, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld (DE)
  • 2008 | HOCHSITZ, Plöttner Verlag, Leipzig (DE)
  • 2007 | Carrara, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld (DE)
  • 2002 | Legitime Aspekte des Alltags, Verlag Faber & Faber Leipzig (DE)
  • 2001 | Freiheit macht Arbeit, Edition Erata, Leipzig (DE)
  • 1996 | KULPOCHE, Verlag Faber & Faber Leipzig (DE)
  • 1994 | Stadtdenkmale im Osten Deutschlands, Edition Leipzig (DE)

Personal Website

http://www.bertramkober.de

Works

Bertram Kober | Kulpoche - Altars of Privacy (1997)

Bertram Kober | Kulpoche - Altars of Privacy (1997)

"Bertram Kober has studied the deposits of human history to reveal the fantasies and real monstrosities contained within them. He focuses on the inescapable contradiction between longing for the dissolution of boundaries, for liberation from the limitations of human life, and the pitiful clichés in which this longing is expressed. Carefully observed, microdramas unfold in the pictures, the tragic and as it were miserable dimensions of which are beyond question. But: people seem to have left the stage for good. The things they used were finally left behind as witnesses. Just as they have been left alone, their surrogate character becomes doubly apparent in their frailty..." Andreas Krase in: Kulpoche altars of privacy. Faber & Faber

Format:

Photo / Video

Bertram Kober | Carrara (2007)

Bertram Kober | Carrara (2007)

"In this respect - and this is the weighty emotional component of this picture series - a discord resonates in the sublimity of the photographed totals, which is even intensified in the detailed views, for we look at the open wounds of a nature maltreated by man, as seductively beautiful as it may look." (Enno Kaufhold) "It seems to me that it is high time for change. The Carrara marble and its myth should not be finally blown up, sawn, ground and processed into sand or end up as snow-white gravel at the DIY store." (Bertram Kober) quotations: Bertram Kober - Carrara. Kerber publishing house

Format:

Photo / Video

Bertram Kober | Sacri Monti (2009)

Bertram Kober | Sacri Monti (2009)

"When a photographic artist takes on works of art or, in other words, puts art over art, in our case we encounter two epochs. Suddenly, the 21st century becomes synchronized with the Baroque era. Bertram Kober makes this meta-level visible by drawing in partition walls - no, not walls, but grids, a perforated second level... The space gets depth. We learn to see anew with the guiding eye of the camera. When a photographic artist of our day turns towards a highlight of mimetic art, and when he succeeds in literally revealing the mystery of this artistry, then images of gripping intensity can emerge. Bertram Kober has proved this." Eckhard Nordhofen in: Bertram Kober - Sacri Monti. Kerber Publishing House

Format:

Photo / Video

Bertram Kober | Transmission (2014)

Bertram Kober | Transmission (2014)

„On photo trips in Europe and beyond, Bertram Kober photographed transmitter masts and receivers, which he presented in Transmission. However, he does not only show the monumental impression or the sculptural aesthetics of the tower structures equipped with countless satellite dishes and rod antennas. The artist refers to the omnipresence of transmission. A seamless net stretches across all landscapes. Waves helping to send and receive, to eavesdrop and transmit, superimpose every place on earth. Information is accessible, everywhere and so are we. The invisibility of the network makes us forget this. The idyll of a landscape seems untouched. Only the docking points of the transmissions are recognizable. Kober impressively stages them.” Christine Dorothea Hölzig in: Transmission. Josef Filipp Gallery

Format:

Photo / Video