EXHIBITIONS 2007

The work »One« by Ken Ohara can be seen as the earliest example of a systematic series of uniform passport photo portraits. It was created in the late 1960's on the streets of New York. Both the closely cropped picture in which Ohara portrays the anonymous subject and the strongly illuminated black-and-white photography reduce the differences between the individuals to a minimum. In this way, the conviction of the fundamental equality of people in a »Family of Man« becomes the actual theme of the work.

Since the 1970's, countless artists have made use of serial work with photographic portraits. In this way, a great variety of concepts were realized. In Luc Delahayes' series »L'Autre«, passengers on the Paris metro waiting in public and unaware of being photographed are characterized by their distant expressions. In contrast, the freshly bleached participants in Olaf Nicolai's artistic work »The Blondes« present themselves with complete self-confidence to the camera .

The project »One World with Many Faces« by Alexander Honory unites thousands of portrait heads from cities on all continents to form a global picture of humanity. Meanwhile, the youthful faces of »Babylon Babies« by Marie Jo Lafontaine appear like idealized representatives of mankind. In the work of Christian Boltanski and Alfredo Jaar, the forlornness of the human individual receives the focus of attention, while Jürgen Klauke and »General Idea« deal with the refusal of the identifiable image through the photographed model. Just how topical the picture series type of portrait photography is today, can be seen distinctly in the groups of work by Valérie Belin, Ralf Peters and Noah Kalina.

The exhibition affords the public a clear comparison of artistic concepts. At the same time, »Head to Head« confronts visitors with an incalculable number of human faces that fill the walls of the Kunsthalle Tübingen like encounters, challenges, or potential likenesses. In serial portrait photography, the conflict between the uniqueness of each individual and the equality of all people is expressed, which largely influences our existence in the age of mass media and globalization.