Michael Nether : On Stage

When photographer Michael Nether set out for Berlin in 1969, that city held enormous attraction for young intellectuals and artists, just as it had done in the Roaring Twenties. There were demonstrations and happenings, and everywhere people held endless discussions that continued through the night. Scandalous theatrical performances and legendary concerts with musicians such as Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Leonard Cohen and George Moustaki gave expression to a new sensibility. And then there was Klaus Kinski, in his unforgettable performance of Jesus Christ and other one-man shows. With his camera, Nether recorded these highlights of cultural change in spectacular pictures not only in Berlin, but also in Paris, his native Stuttgart and elsewhere, and the present volume brings this period back to life again.

Text in English & German. When at the end of the 1960s Michael Nether set out for Berlin, that city held enormous attraction for young intellectuals and artists, just as it had done in the Roaring Twenties. There were demonstrations and happenings, there was Kommune 1 with Rainer Langhans and Uschi Obermeier, and everywhere people held endless discussions that continued throughout the night. Scandalous theatrical performances and legendary concerts with musicians such as Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Leonard Cohen and George Moustaki gave expression to a new sensibility. And then there was Klaus Kinski, in his unforgettable performance of Jesus Christ and other one-man shows. Nether photographed what he saw face to face -- 'on stage' -- including stars of international cinema like Claudia Cardinale, Roman Polanski, Peter Ustinov or Pier Paolo Pasolini. One of his first photos was the scene of a 1969 student demonstration at the Berlin Gedachtniskirche. Crowds of people throng the streets observed by countless curious passersby, and the police are there with their vans. The composition of the picture can hardly have happened by chance. Cars and the facades of buildings are points of reference past which people wind like a huge serpent. At the centre top of the picture there is a bright light. The photo sums up the atmosphere of departure and the state of mind of an entire generation. Here Nether demonstrates that he is an articulate documentary photographer. Towards the end of the 1970s, Nether returned to his home region of Swabia. Here he went into business with a partner, worked for advertising agencies -- for instance, taking photographs for Porsche in the company's research and development centre in Weissach -- but he also gradually made a name for himself as a photographic artist, with his own gallery in Bietigheim-Bissingen; particularly noteworthy were his pictures of prominent celebrities such as Wolf Biermann, Martin Walser, Woody Allen or Helmut Newton, as well as numerous photos of performances by the Stuttgart Ballet, but also of "street people". He succeeds in subtly communicating with the latter in these photos and making this dialogue visible. Today his main interest focuses on photographing portraits and nudes. In 2009 the International Center of Photography in New York purchased 100 photographs by Nether.