Klaus Kammerichs turns 90

With a buoyant voice, Klaus Kammerichs tells us by telephone about his upcoming birthday on 1 December. He will be celebrating in Darmstadt, a number of things have been announced and he assumes that one of his photo sculptures will be edited in a handy small format. Above all, however, his wife Eva Weissweiler will be awarded the Luise Büchner Prize for Journalism at the same time. The pioneer of women's and gender research in German-language musicology brings the creative and vital energy of strong women out of the shadows of their fathers, brothers and husbands. In keeping with Goethe's motto "Tell me who you are with, and I will tell you who you are", Klaus Kammerichs already has all the cards on his side. Their work together began in 1986 with experimental videos and documentary films, and they married in 2003.

Kammerich's work has been closely interwoven with art from the very beginning, with his father, a passionate amateur photographer, having influenced him to take up photography. Apprenticeship as a photographer and early professional practice, then studies with Otto Steinert, 1954 participation in photokina, 1956 Kammerichs is the "Discovery of the Month" of the New York magazine Modern Photography. He then went straight on to study fine art at the Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, followed by years of teaching from 1966.

With his photo sculptures, Kammerichs transferred photography into three-dimensionality in a genuine way. They are also represented as large sculptures in public spaces from Bonn to Yokohama. In a smaller format, he realised the change in perspective from an illusionistic still photograph to an abstractly structured object in 1988 for the David Octavius Hill Medal (see our archive object of the month). A radical new design that transforms the Hill portrait into a layered photo sculpture. Kammerichs himself received this award from the German Photographic Academy in 1994.

Wolfgang Zurborn recently visited Klaus Kammerichs in his studio. The most pleasant occasion: Kammerichs bequeathed photo sculptures to the DFA for its photographic collection.

Many thanks and happy birthday!

Text: Corinna Weidner, picture: Wolfgang Zurborn