small business/europa
small business/europe Photographs by Fred Breinersdorfer
on June 5, 2013, at 7 PM in the Salve Art Gallery
For over ten years, Fred Breinersdorfer has been photographing shop facades around the world.
A series of photographs taken in Europe will be on display in the Leipzig Salve Art Gallery in the summer of 2013 under the title "small business/europe."
"Business portraits are like human faces, readable yet full of secrets. They blend the conscious offerings of the store with the subconscious allure for buyers. Across Europe, a picture emerges of fascinating cultural diversity and surprising similarities — and sometimes a touch of more or less involuntary humor. Unfortunately, the unique faces of individual businesses are slowly dying out, overshadowed by the mask-like facades of retail chains."
About the artist:
Author and lawyer Fred Breinersdorfer was born in 1946 in Mannheim. He studied law and sociology in Mainz and Tübingen and practiced as a lawyer in Stuttgart for 17 years. After a brief foray into politics (in 1994, he ran for the Bundestag in Stuttgart for the SPD), Breinersdorfer dedicated himself entirely to writing, primarily screenwriting. However, since "many people interfere in screenplay work and endless discussions ensue" (quote from Breinersdorfer), he finds solace in photography, where the artist alone determines the theme, form, and content. This led to the creation of the series "small business/europe" during numerous travels over the past decade.
An excerpt from his film works: As a screenwriter, he began with a classic episode of Tatort, "Zweierlei Blut" (Horst Schimanski). He went on to write numerous feature films, mostly thrillers, but not exclusively, including "Der Hammermörder," an adaptation of his novel of the same name (DER SPIEGEL: "A classic of German television film"), as well as "Notwehr," "Quarantäne," "Angst," "Duell der Richter," and the two-part series "Das tödliche Auge," "Der Mann mit der Maske," "Mein ist die Rache," "Die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt," "Der verlorene Sohn," and "Der Chinese" (an adaptation of the novel by Henning Mankell, which he co-wrote with his daughter Léonie-Claire).
In spring 2011, he launched the project "Filmmakers in Prison" at the German Film Academy, which supports persecuted filmmakers in collaboration with the Berlinale and Amnesty International. In 2012, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the State of Baden-Württemberg.
His screenplays and films have been nominated for various awards — including the Deutscher Fernsehpreis, Deutscher Filmpreis, and the European Film Award — and have won several accolades, including the Adolf Grimme Prize in Gold, the German and European Film Prize, and the ver.di Television Prize. In 2006, "Sophie Scholl - die letzten Tage" was nominated for an Academy Award (Oscar®) in the category of "Foreign Language Film."
The artist will be present in the evening.