Exhibitions

Mona Breede

To create her images Breede combines elements from multiple photographs, all shot from the same camera position at the same location. Typically she observes the light at a location during the course of a full day in order to discover when it is the most moody and atmospheric. Then she exposes her background image. Breede subsequently returns to the site many times to record people passing through. Later, at her computer, she begins the difficult work of composing the image - executing the «choreography», as she describes it - of people in the urban environment. Breede is careful to place her figures in poses that could have happened, positioning each person in a way that mimics the patterns and behaviors she observed at the scene.

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During her travels through Asia, Europe, and North America to create the series, Breede felt that the task of choosing the backgrounds for her pictures had become difficult as architectural styles are being copied world-wide and urban centers increasingly resemble each other. She often selects unspectacular, non-recognizable corners of cities to use as her backdrops, yet her pictures do not stress homogeneity. The cities Breede depicts are distinct in their character because she focuses on variable elements such as atmosphere and human movement, rather than on the familiar architecture in the background.

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Breede's photographs suggest that despite homogenizing factors such as globalization and modernism, every city is unique. In her work the architecture is only the backdrop for stories and lives that prevent the city from disappearing into the generic. This is less a commentary on the failure of utopian vision than a recognition that cities are much more than their architecture - they are an unruly, constantly shifting blend of energy, climate, people, actions, ways of thinking, planning, infrastructure, and light - each one a unique microcosm of humanity.

Mona Breede. Biography
1968
Born in Kiel, Germany.
1988 - 1989
Internship at the Museum of Arts and Krafts, Department of Photography, Hamburg, Germany.
1989 - 1991
Training as photographer at the State School of Photography in Munich, Germany.
1992 - 1998
Study of Photography and Design at the State Higher School of Design in Karlsruhe, Germany, in the classes of Rolf Sachsse and Thomas Struth.
1999
Solo exhibition at the Goethe-Institut London, parallel to the group exhibition „Reconstructing Space: Architecture in Recent German Photography", Architectural Association, London, Great Britain.
"Perspectives (Views) of women ´99 - Dreams, Visions, Utopias", Prinz-Max-Palais, Karlsruhe, Germany.
2001 - 2002
„starshots_01" Prize at competition of dit (Investment company of Dresdner Bank group).
Special issue in „Photography now", Journal for photography and Video Art, Nr. 4/2001. „Positions of contemporary architectural photography" (with Klaus Kinold, Barbara Klemm, Horst Schäfer and Ulrich Schwarz), Gallery Dittmar, Berlin, Germany.
Teaching activity at the Merkurakademie, Karlsruhe, Germany.
2003
„People and Spaces" (catalogue), solo wxhibition, Gallery Dittmar, Berlin, Germany.
„Children Portraits" (among others with Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Bernhard Prinz and August Sander), by Elke Droescher, Kunstraum Falkenstein, Hamburg, Germany.
2004
„People and Spaces", solo exhibition parallel to the 11 th International Month of photography, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre, Athens, Greece (catalogue).
„New Photoworks", solo exhibition, Gallery Heinz-Martin Weigand, Ettlingen, Germany.
2005
„Out of the series [3]", group exhibition, K4 Galerie, Werner Deller, Saarbrücken, Germany. „Choreographies and Portraits ", solo exhibition, New Stock Exchange, Frankfurt, Germany.
„Summer Show", group exhibition, Ileana Tounta Contemporary Art Centre, Athens, Greece.
Förderkoje Art Cologne (Gallery Heinz-Martin Weigand), Cologne, Germany.
2006
„L‘Arrière-Plan de l'Existence", solo exhibition, Goethe-Institut Lyon, France (catalogue).
„The Background of Existence", solo exhibition, Gallery Dittmar, Berlin, Germany.
2007
„The Shadows of Light", Goethe-Institut Riga, Latvia.
„Living Spaces", solo exhibition, Gallery Heinz-Martin Weigand, Ettlingen, Germany.
„The Undergone Space", solo exhibition, Kunstverein Plauen-Vogtland e.V., Plauen, Germany.

„Industrial world of images - Austria Tyrol´s industry in contemporary photography" (among others with Miklos Gaál & Otto Karvonen, Walter Niedermayr and Timm Rautert), Tyrol, Austria (catalogue).
2008
„Industrial world of images - Austria Tyrol´s industry in contemporary photography", group exhibition, German Industrial Safety Exhibition (DASA), Düsseldorf, Germany.
Solo exhibition, CM ART Gallery, Paris, France.
Solo exhibition, McBRIDE Fine Art Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium.
„Day in, Day out", solo exhibition, Gallery Dittmar, Berlin, Germany.
Special Issue in zoom_book magazine, „Young Photography of the Presence", Hamburg, Germany.