The entire world is the workplace of the .photo-journalist. The Institut fur Ausiandsbe7iehungen has already mounted three exhibitions devoted to photo-journalism, a special branch of photography. Our scries of exhibitions entitled "Fotografie in deutschen Zeilschriften" ('Photography in German Magazines'] delineated the development of photo-journalism from ils origins up to the 'eighties of the 20th century. The present project with the title "The World as One" represents the chronological progression of this theme into the last decade, which, after a long intermission allowed us once more to see East and West as a totality, following the fall of the Iron Curtain and the re-integration of Europe. When the inter-German border opened in 198&, and in the following year the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany, tfifi European dichotomy between East and West seemed, for one illusory moment, to dissolve and be replaced by historic solidarity and cultural unity. The photography presented here reflects, like no other medium, the uniqueness of this historic situation, while at the same time paying special attention to its social, political, and cultural consequences. The objective of our project is to reveal this specific quality of 'nineties photography, The contributing artists view their social environments from different perspectives and choose to present different aspects of thesei landscape, architecture, portrait, modern history, society. Each documents, in his Or her own unique way, those aspects of their individual realities that interest them most.

We tend to imagine photo-journalists as dashing adventurers hung with cameras and equipment, who scurry from one country to another and from one catastrophe to another in search of new sensations. However, sensational pictorial reports with upsetting, even shocking images, were not our fundamental concern, We were much more concerned to show sensitive pictorial reporting, another strong tradition in Germany, In the case of some photographers of the younger generation this approach has led to the development of an independent pictorial style. They have devoted remarkable energy in their work to intensifying the aesthetic and psychological impact of pictorial images.

The serial works and the current research of our young artists places them in the proximity of photo-reporters, to whom they do in part belong, especially when they produce for magazines. The artistic ambition of their projects, and their high aesthetic standard, however, point away from mere photo-reporting. One common factor they all strive towards is innovative forms of articulation, which they attempt to uphold far beyond the mere reporting of current events. Mostly, they had already found their 'own' themes, before they agreed to these commissions. They are also not agents in the narrow sense, but specialists in 3 specific subject matter and a particular pictorial idiom, who put their own special stamp on a report with their individual pictorial expression, as an author would with his text. Our exhibition is dedicated to the artists presented here who do not differentiate between other people's commissions and their own work; who show the world as one, over and above the scope of their commissions, as it is, open to reality; whose personal involvement encourages reflection rather than tries to shock; and who do not expose, but rather respect the dignity of the sitters, both in letter and spirit. Markus Rasp, the former Art Director of the magazine of the "Siiddeutsche Zeitung", first comprehensively presented this exciting "Contemporary German Photography" of the 'nineties in a book in 1997, to which UIf Erdmann Ziegler contributed the foreword The ensuing exhibition in the same year (with Burkhard Riem-schneider and Tim Neuger as the prime movers} was also the inspiration for the present exhibition project.

We would like to thank all the artists for their enthusiasm for the idea, together with the curator, UIf Erdmann Ziegler, for his expert selection. His commitment and feeling for outstanding work guided him securely through the vast amount of material and elicited only the best from all involved. He presents two complimentary forms of presentation together in this exhibition: namely the photographic originals and the published photography.