Fortschritt als Versprechen

A table of contents in German for a book on industrial photography. The page is titled Inhalt and lists chapter titles and page numbers in two columns. Topics include coal mining, steel, chemical, textile, and automotive industries, with separate sections for West Germany (Bundesrepublik) and East Germany (DDR).

A page from a book showing a black-and-white photograph on the left and German text on the right. The photograph features two miners, an older man and a younger apprentice, with their faces and hands covered in soot. Both wear helmets and are smiling at each other while holding glass bottles of milk.

A page from a German book titled Die schöne Welt der Arbeit, featuring a large color photograph from 1964. The photo shows a worker in brown overalls and a red hard hat, kneeling on a massive, circular metal component of a nuclear power plant. He is using a tool on one of the many round ports covering the surface, which emits a bright blue glow.

A two-page spread from a book about the German steel industry. The left page features a large photo of a worker in a red hard hat and plaid shirt, studying a large document in a factory setting. The right page displays three images: a large, low-angle shot of an industrial machine with blue and white striped bands, a small magazine cover, and a product sample card, all with German captions.

A page from a publication about the steel industry, featuring three photos of steel manufacturing. On the left, a poster and a color photograph show a glowing, red-hot steel wire being wound into a large coil on a production line. On the right, a large, dynamic photo captures a steel beam being cut, sending a massive shower of golden sparks across the factory.

A two-page spread from a German book titled Chemieindustrie Bundesrepublik. The left page contains text. The right page features two black-and-white photographs. The top photo from 1974 shows a model walking between tall stacks of Dralon fiber bales in a warehouse. The bottom photo from 1959 shows a model in a sweater at a fashion show for an audience of clapping female factory workers.

A two-page spread from a German publication, pages 144 and 145, about the chemical and textile industry. On the left is a color close-up of fine white threads being extruded from a metal machine part, and a black-and-white photo of a man inspecting threads. On the right is a black-and-white photo of a woman operating a large circular spinning machine, positioned above a typed press release from Bayer AG dated 1979.

A two-page spread from a German publication. On the left is a black-and-white 1950s photograph of a female worker in a factory, holding a tray with large spools of Perlon thread. On the right is a 1950 magazine cover for Wir vom Glanzstoff, featuring a stylized close-up photo of many Perlon spools.

A two-page spread from a publication on the German chemical industry. On the left are two black-and-white images, one an old scientific drawing of an anatomical figure in a lab, the other a photo of a scientist. On the right is a 1968 color photo showing a monkey in a restraint chair for a pharmacology experiment, connected to a large wall of electronic equipment.

A two-page book spread titled Chemieindustrie DDR about the chemical industry in East Germany. The spread includes German text and several historical photographs. On the right are two photos of women working at the Leuna-Werke in 1965, one in a lab and another operating machinery. Below is a larger image from a 1959 Arabic newspaper showing a female technician in a lab, with images of the factory and colorful plastic consumer products.

A two-page spread from a book showing two color photographs from the 1970s. On the left, a young woman in overalls and a Black man in a lab coat, both wearing hard hats, examine a flask of yellow liquid outdoors at a chemical plant. On the right, a female lab technician with a dark bouffant hairstyle works in a lab surrounded by colorful chemical solutions in glassware.

A two-page book spread about the textile industry in the German Democratic Republic. On the left, a color photo from 1982 shows a Black contract worker from Mozambique operating a large spinning machine. On the right, another 1982 color photo shows a group of white German female workers gathered together in the same factory.

A page from a book on the East German automobile industry, showing a 1963 color photograph of the Trabant P 60 assembly line in Zwickau. In the foreground, a woman with a blonde bouffant hairstyle, wearing blue overalls over a red shirt, works on a white car with its hood open. Other workers and cars are visible further down the industrial production line.

Fortschritt als Versprechen

Industriefotografie im geteilten Deutschland

€ 44.00

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Edited by: Stefanie R. Dietzel, Carola Jüllig

Texts by: Stefanie R. Dietzel, Thomas Dupke, Stefanie Grebe, Annette Schuhmann, Steffen Siegel, Friedrich Tietjen

Graphic Design: Peter Nils Dorén

German

February 2023, 256 Pages, 280 Photos

Paperback with Flaps

213mm x 263mm

ISBN: 978-3-7757-5426-2

HATJE CANTZ VERLAG
Mommsenstr. 27
10629 Berlin
Germany
E-Mail: contact@hatjecantz.de

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| Historic Images of a Better Future

Dramatically lit production halls, boiling steel, broad smiles on soot-smeared faces—behind these all but iconic motifs of industrial photography lies the powerful narrative of economic boom and progress.

From the depiction of prosperity to the image of a new future, the exhibition and catalogue are the first to systematically examine the visual language of commissioned industrial photography in the two systems of divided Germany—capitalism and socialism—for differences and similarities in the depiction of progress and to show how photography and its contextualization convey these narratives of economic upturn. Distinguished photo historians illuminate the ways in which the concept of progress was negotiated at different times and how it has changed. "Vorsprung durch Technik"—industry was long a source of identity for Germany. With de-industrialization and the limits of growth, the question of the future of the genre of industrial photography also arises.

EXHIBITION
Deutsches Historisches Museum, Berlin
February 10-May 29, 2023