Bernd Jonkmanns’ exhibition „Brooklyn“ and „Twenty-One American Photographs“ at the German House

Bernd Jonkmanns’ independently produced photo project “Brooklyn” illustrates the idea of the American melting pot, with its ethnic groups and their diversity in culture, traditions, and religions as large-scale photographs.

Brooklyn, New York: Here, the colorful diversity of an international community is a living reality. With a land area of 251km² and a water area of 68km², it is 2.5 times as big as Manhattan and, with its 2.63 million residents, the most highly populous borough of New York. Jonkmanns visited this district many times and took portraits of its residents with his 6×6 cm medium-format camera. “Spending one day in Brooklyn”, says Jonkmanns, “is like taking a trip halfway around the world.” An African-American family enjoys the sun in Prospect Park, an Italian senior group meets in front of a street café to chat, and an old barber shop with a picture of Al Capone all describe old town Brooklyn.

Jonkmanns’ photographs are reminiscent of old American movies and play with the cliché of the American “Good Old Days”.11 large-scale 70cm x 100 cm (40×40 inch) photographs can be seen in this exhibit, with a version of seven prints plus an artist print available for purchase.

The second series, “Twenty-One American Photographs“, was inspired by a trip across the American West in 2016.

For this, he wanted to completely free himself artistically from his commissioned work in a photographic sense, so he chose to work with a tripod and cut back to one motif per day for his pictures. Jonkmanns always had his photography role models, such as Walker Evans, Ansel Adams, Stephen Shore, and William Eggleston, in mind as inspiration for ideas and motifs. In order to honor and follow in the footsteps of his American photography role models, he visited California, Arizona, Utah, South Dakota, and Colorado. He photographed street scenes, landscapes, bars, and facades of American houses. 21 photographs emerged from this as a small book series.

At the German House, Bernd Jonkmanns will exhibit 14 large-scale photographs (27,5 inch X 40inch) from the series “Twenty-One American Photographs”, from which 10 prints plus 1 artist print are also available for purchase.

Artist website: berndjonkmanns

Location and time:
German Consulate General
871 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY 10017
Thursday, May 10, 2018, 6:00 PM –  8:00 PM.
The exhibition will be on view until the end of July.

Admission is free but RSVP is required for the Exhibition Opening at: here