Riots and drug wars: 40 years of Laif photos

The exhibition "40 years of laif — 40 positions of documentary photography" at the Museum of Applied Arts in Cologne (MAKK) looks back at four decades of the photo agency's work.

The show opens with a timeline recalling major events of the past 40 years: anti-nuclear protests, federal elections, the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Initially, the plan was to conclude that list with the flood in the Ahr valley region in the summer of 2021.

But then, on February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. The curators of the exhibition therefore included a photo of this war as the sad conclusion of this anniversary show. It depicts a train in blue and yellow, the national colors of Ukraine. People hand over luggage; people fleeing their homes look through the windows in fear.

The show includes photo series documenting the drug war in Colombia, Christo and Jeanne-Claude's wrapping of the Reichstag and Ghana's infamous electronic waste scrapyard.

Four photographers, Günter Beer, Jürgen Bindrim, Manfred Linke and Guenay Ulutuncok founded the agency in 1981 in the south of Cologne.

The name Laif says it all, explains Linke: "Be there live, close to life. That's all included in this word and that is also our approach. We try to be close to the actions and to life."

Today, the photo agency represents more than 400 photographers worldwide and is one of the leading photo agencies in Germany. Its focus is documentary and press photography.

From anti-nuclear protests to the war in Ukraine

The MAKK exhibition tells the story of the Cologne agency through photos: "We'e been dealing with photography for 40 years, so if you want to celebrate that, then the focus needs to be on the pictures," says Linke.

Each "photographic position" represents a specific year in Laif's history.

The first images date from the year the agency was created, 1981, and show the brutal clashes between the police and demonstrators at what was then the largest German anti-nuclear demonstration, in Wackersdorf, Bavaria.

Most of the 300 photographs are printed on newsprint and hang on the walls — a homage to the earlier days of journalistic photography, which was primarily print media.

"We wanted to go back to where press photography actually comes from and that's printing in newspapers," says Peter Bialobrzeski, photographer and curator of the exhibition. "Today, it's exactly the opposite. Most photographers, mostly students who are are fresh out college, don't even think about the print market or print outlets anymore. They immediately have a conceptual idea for an exhibition."

A visual exploration of contemporary history

The exhibition allows visitors to take a stroll through contemporary history through the eyes of the agency's photographers, from their more activist-motivated beginnings to increasingly artistic approaches.

Aesthetically, the images reveal the diversity of documentary photography: "There is a wide range; most people don't realize that," Linke points out.

Documentary photography as a profession also offers a particular way to experience the world: "The camera helps me do things that I wouldn't do without a camera," says Linke.

Beyond the chronological construction of the show, there are deliberate juxtapositions of situations in the exhibition room: For instance, the protests against the nuclear reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf in 1986 echo the demonstrations in the Hambach Forest in 2019.

And all the photographs are united by their individuality: "All of these pictures have one thing in common: a magic that cannot really be described," explains curator Bialobrzeski, adding that it's an attempt to deal with a world where words are often not strong enough to describe a situation. This is what makes "great photography," stresses the curator.

The exhibition "40 years of laif — 40 positions in documentary photography" is on show until September 25, 2022 at the Museum of Applied Arts in Cologne.

This article was originally written in German.