A pipe runs like an axis through three of the gallery’s rooms, its two ends resting on the railings of balconies overlooking the street and courtyard. The pipe also functions as a camera obscura: On each end is a pinhole that focuses the light and carries a reflection of the exterior space through the gallery’s interior, using the pipe as a medium.

8-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrom City, shot from the 12th story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 320 cm.

Eight-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrom City, shot from the 12th story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 320 cm.

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Two-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12t story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 220 cm

Nine-day direct exposure on black-and-white photographic paper, from the series Monochrome City, shot from the 12th story of the Haus des Lehrers, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 130 x 340 cm.

Camera Obscura for Monochrome City

Here, in the southwest corner of the top floor of the Haus des Lehrers, the Monochrome City series was created in 2000–01: fourteen large-format direct exposures of Berlin’s Alexanderplatz.

Therefore Heike Klussmann converted her studio in the Haus des Lehrers into a photographic apparatus, the whole studio became a camera obscura, format 550 x 500 x 320 cm.

The camera obscura for the Descent photographs (North, South, East and West) in Monochrome City was mounted on the top floor of the Haus des Lehrers. The studio space itself formed the camera obscura for the other photographs in the series.

Monochrome City consists of fourteen large-format direct exposures that I made from the top floor of the Haus des Lehrers (Teacher’s House) on Berlin’s Alexanderplatz. The photographs were made over the course of 2001, when my studio was located there. They depict either the view down onto Alexanderplatz or the view in the opposite direction, looking back into the building. ‹Monochrome City› employs the principle of the camera obscura—that is, all of the images are exposed directly onto the paper, and thus they appear as negatives and mirror reversed. The exposure time of each photograph ranges from a few hours to several days. To take the photographs I first built a box based on the proportions of the building and the dimensions of the window openings, then I converted the whole studio space into a camera. The work consists of several perspectives: four horizontal views outward (north, south, west, east), four vertical views down the facade of the building toward the street (north, south, west, east), and four views into the house (wall, ceiling). The view into my studio is also the view into the camera, since for two architectural details the whole studio functioned as a pinhole camera. They show Kaufhof and the Forum Hotel, two buildings that stand on Alexanderplatz, boxlike and solitary, much as the Haus des Lehrers does. The sightlines touch the building, but they leave it like a vacant space in the center of the work.

Monochrome City at Norwich Gallery, UK.

Monochrom City in the show
Berlin Getting Real at the Kunst Zürich.

Monochrome City shown at Haus des Lehrers and Kongresshalle Berlin.