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Ruth Walz: Theatre Photography
 
"Der Kuss des Vergessens" von Botho Strauß
Schauspielhaus Zürich 1998
Regie: Matthias Hartmann
Bühne: Karl-Ernst Herrmann
Ricarda: Anne Tismer, Herr Jelke: Otto Sander
© Ruth Walz
 

Ruth Walz » Theatre Photography

 
8 October 2021 – 13 February 2022
 
 

Museum für Fotografie

Jebensstr. 2, 10623 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30   3186 4825
mf@smb.spk-berlin.de
www.smb.museum/mf
www.facebook.com/staatlichemuseenzuberlin
Tue-Sun 11am-7pm, Thu 11am-8pm
 
 
Ruth Walz: Theatre Photography
 
"Parsifal" von Richard Wagner
L’Opéra Bastille Paris 2008
Regie: Krzysztof Warlikowski
Bühne: Malgorzata Szczęśniak
Kundry: Waltraud Meier
© Ruth Walz
 
 
In a large solo exhibition, the Museum für Fotografie (Museum of Photography) presents theatre photographs by Ruth Walz from the past 50 years. Between 1976 and 1990, Walz masterfully documented legendary productions by Peter Stein, Luc Bondy and Robert Wilson, among others, for the Schaubühne Berlin. She also accompanied many other milestones of recent European theatre and opera history as a photographer.

In the decade and a half that Ruth Walz (b. 1941 in Bremen) was closely allied with the Schaubühne ensemble, she perseveringly and no less poignantly captured the productions of Peter Stein, Klaus-Michael Grüber, Luc Bondy and Robert Wilson in the memorable spaces of Karl Ernst Herrmann, Gilles Aillaud and Eduardo Arroyo and the costumes of Moidele Bickel and Susanne Raschig. Following this successful and benchmark-setting era, she trained her lens on companions as they performed on many of Europe’s theatre and opera stages. During this period she also expanded her photographic range technically (from analogue to digital) and through new friendships with theatre directors, including Krzystof Warlikowski, Peter Sellars, Dmitri Tcherniakov and Romeo Castellucci.
 
 
Ruth Walz: Theatre Photography
 
"Die Orestie des Aischylos"
Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz Berlin 1980
Regie: Peter Stein
Bühne: Karl-Ernst Herrmann
Athene: Jutta Lampe
© Ruth Walz
 
 
Photography at the Theatre
Her instinct for choosing the "decisive moment", which is no less valid in the theatre than in street photography, has produced compelling portraits of eminent actors and actresses through the years. Ruth Walz’s close-ups capture the actors’ countenances more minutely than we have ever seen them, while her long shots evoke enduring spatial narratives. Intimate gestures and eloquent facial expressions intertwine with the choral interplay of the ensemble.

One of theatre photography’s paradoxes is its enrichment of the most ephemeral art form with lifelike shadows, revealing the pleasure as well as loss of the immediate experience – both joyfully and painfully. Ruth Walz’s photographs bear her unmistakable signature; her images of the theatre reward us with insight into its recent history as well as present-day, with its urgency for contemporaneity.
 
 
Ruth Walz: Theatre Photography
 
"La seconde surprise de l'amour" von Pierre Carlet de Marivaux
Theatre des Amandiers, Nanterre 2007
Regie: Luc Bondy
Bühne: Karl Ernst Herrmann
La Marquise: Clothilde Hesme, Le Chevalier: Micha Lescot
© Ruth Walz
 
 
A Glimpse into Ruth Walz’s Laboratory
In addition to extended image series from individual productions, including plays by Shakespeare, Aeschylus and Goethe, the exhibition also offers a look behind the scenes and into Ruth Walz’s laboratory – literally as well as figuratively. Separate sections in the exhibition feature the theatre of Bruno Strauss, as well as her partner Bruno Ganz, who died in 2019.

The Publication Accompanying the Exhibition
The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated book published by Hatje Cantz Verlag: Ruth Walz: Theater im Sucher, German and English, 400 pages, ISBN 978-3-7757-5041-7, approx. € 54.

A special exhibition of the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and Fotografische Momente
 
 
Ruth Walz: Theatre Photography
 
"Pelléas et Mélisande" von Claude Debussy
Salzburger Festspiele 1997
Regie und Bühne: Robert Wilson
Melisande: Dawn Upshaw
© Ruth Walz
 
 
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