The exhibition started on December 5, 2018 “Time fade. 1968 to 2018. Photographs by Holger Rüdel” in the Schleswig City Museum. From March 1st to July 31st, 2019 the project was in Kiel Sparkasse Foundation Schleswig-Holstein to see.

Stations of the exhibition: Schleswig, Kiel and Berlin

Afterwards - from August 15th to October 23rd, 2019 - the ver.di federal administration the expanded contemporary historical part of the exhibition in her gallery at Paula-Thiede-Ufer 10 in Berlin. 

“A very complex and impressive retrospective” (Dr. Dörte Beier)

For the Schleswiger Nachrichten, Svend Windmann reported on the opening in the Schleswig City Museum in the December 7, 2018 edition:

Rarely has the crowd at an exhibition opening of the Schleswig Photo Club been as big as on Wednesday evening. Around 100 guests came to the stables of the Schleswig City Museum to witness the starting signal for the “Zeitblende” by Holger Rüdel - the man who had managed this house as director for more than 30 years. It became clear again and again during this era that his heart beats for photography. Rüdel brought exhibitions by numerous internationally renowned photographers to his house. So now his work is the focus. “He made it possible for many artists to exhibit here in the city museum. Now it’s his turn – and we’re of course very happy to support that,” said Thorsten Dahl, chairman of the museum’s support association, in his welcoming speech.

Until February 24th, photos of Rüdel that have been taken over the past 50 years will be shown on two floors. While more current images, such as photos of animals, can be seen on the upper floor, you can find more contemporary images on the ground floor. “He felt called to be a photographer,” said Rüdel’s successor Dörte Beier, who looked back at his biography and recalled Rüdel’s former desire to become a photojournalist.

Friedrich Scheller, chairman of the photography club, which has been cooperating with the city museum since 1980, also stressed that he had what it takes. “This exhibition is something special for us too, in its dimensions,” said Scheller..

“The exhibition is a very complex and impressive retrospective,” explained museum director Dr. Dörte Beier summarized in her introductory speech. 

“Photography is a way of life” (Henri Cartier-Bresson)

In the introduction to the exhibition catalog, Holger Rüdel writes: 

With the invention of roll film and later the 1900mm film system, the prerequisites for the construction of small, mobile cameras were met around 20. This was the birth of modern photojournalism. From then on, photo reporters were able to act flexibly and report up close from the hot spots of world events. Photography thus became the “eye of the XNUMXth century”.

This documentary and at the same time educational function of photography inspired me as a student. When I held my first camera in my hand at the end of 1967 at the age of 16, I looked for my subjects on the street and witnessed an action-packed time of change in all areas of life.

I took photographs partly on behalf of school and student newspapers, and from 1971 – while studying photography, history and art history in Hamburg – also as a freelancer for the magazine “Konkret” and other publications.

Student protests, the rocker scene in Hamburg, the rising terror of the “Red Army Faction” (RAF), the hot spots of the civil war in Northern Ireland, the fate of the underprivileged in Paris and the hippie scene in Amsterdam – these were some of the topics that I discussed in the early days Observed with the camera in the 1970s.

My contemporary image archive with these and many other motifs includes several thousand images in black and white and color. Series and individual images from the archive can be seen in an exhibition for the first time as part of the “Zeitblende” project. The range extends from recordings from the “wild 1960s” to the actions of the peace and anti-nuclear power movement around 1980 right up to the eve of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The second part of the exhibition focuses on new photographic projects: landscapes, wildlife and digital infrared photography in black and white, which has increasingly fascinated me since 2014. In its black and white version, digital infrared photography opens up new ways of seeing and visual worlds. When used correctly, images of analytical, captivating clarity are created - or images in the style of magical realism.

How did Sebastião Salgado once put it? “Reality is in color, truth is in black and white.”

About the content of this catalog: The main part presents – mostly full-page – concise examples from the motif groups in the exhibition. The complete image directory can be found in the appendix and documents all 91 photographs of the project. I would like to thank the Schleswiger Fotoclub e. V., represented by Friedrich-Wilhelm Scheller, for the organization and committed support of the exhibition. The Schleswig City Museum, its director Dr. I would like to thank Dörte Beier and the entire team for their willingness to show the show in this house, to which I have been associated for over 30 years. And finally, I would like to thank the Association for the Promotion of the Schleswig City Museum e. V., the Sparkassenstiftung Schleswig-Holstein and the Nospa-Kulturstiftung Schleswig-Flensburg for their help in putting together the exhibition and catalog.  

A video tour through the exhibition in the Schleswig City Museum

“Time Blend” on TV

On December 16, 2018, an NDR film about the exhibition was broadcast in N3's Schleswig-Holstein magazine. The report was available in the NDR and ARD media libraries until March 16, 2019. 

Press archive

“Actor and observer shows eventful everyday life”: Review by Sarah Schaefer (Berlin) in “M”, the media policy magazine of ver.di, published on 12 September 2019

Review in the magazine “Lifestyle in the North”, June 2019

Exhibition tip in the culture section of the Kieler Nachrichten on April 2, 2019

Announcement of the presentation at the Sparkassenstiftung Schleswig-Holstein in Kieler Express from February 20, 2019

Exhibition report in the magazine “Lifestyle in the North”, February 2019 

Article in Flensburger Tageblatt (culture section) from January 4, 2019 (also published in: Der Insel Bote, Eckernförder Zeitung, Glückstädter Fortuna, Holsteinischer Courier, Husumer Nachrichten, Landeszeitung, Norddeutsche Rundschau, Nordfriesland Tageblatt, Ostholsteiner Anzeiger, Schlei Bote, Stormarner Tageblatt, Sylter Rundschau, Wilstersche Zeitung)

Articles in the Kieler Nachrichten from December 8, 2018

Report on the opening of the exhibition Schleswiger Nachrichten from December 7, 2018

Interview with Holger Rüdel in the Schleswiger Nachrichten from November 30, 2018 (also published in: Flensburger Tageblatt, Husumer Nachrichten and Schlei-Bote)