Irgendwo

Interview (German/English) with Michael Schmidt by Dietmar Elger
Pages 146
Illustrations 80 duotone
Format 24 × 29 cm
Binding linen with dust jacket

Somehow a somewhere is always like a nowhere. This fact also characterizes Michael Schmidt's photography. He compiles series of photographs for books and exhibitions. However, his idea of photography has little to do with labeling; rather, he documents a place, non-places, and the inhabitants, image by image.

These are tentative movements that sometimes want to throw the whole procedure overboard because they are always a little influenced by impatience. There could also be another place, other, equally interesting residents.

The almost epochally indifferent images and, of course, books such as Ceasefire or EIN-HEIT have brought Michael Schmidt to the forefront of German photographers. He organized the first solo exhibition by a German photographer at the Museum of Modern Art in New York; in the meantime, a second one and participation in a number of themed exhibitions have been added.

With his project Somewhere, Michael Schmidt aims directly at the “dark heart” of Germany, if this Conrad metaphor is even appropriate. Because here is the mass architecture, the homely atmosphere, the absolute province; here people don't look any different than in Berlin. And yet, in Michael Schmidt's photos, they exude a mood that touches on something deep and dark.

If you then asked Michael Schmidt what was bothering him, an anecdotal conversation could suddenly arise that dissolves all the dark moments in an instant.