Aperture, No. 123, 1991. Between Past and Future: New German Photography.

Photos by Otto Steinert, UMBO, Hannah Hoch, Heinz Jajek-Halke, Albert Renger-Patzsch, Friedrich Seidenstucker, August Sander, Robert Hausser, Herbert List, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Dieter Appelt, Andreas Gursky, Evelyn Richter, Thomas Ruff, Anselm Kiefer, and many others. Very good with a few crimps. Issued at $18.50.

Aperture, No. 123 (Spring 1991), titled Between Past and Future: New German Photography, is a landmark issue of the journal published shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, offering a comprehensive look at German fine-art photography during a transformative geopolitical moment.

Overview & Historic Scope

• Editorial Vision: Edited by Michael E. Hoffman and curated during the pivotal era of German reunification, the issue examines how contemporary photographers navigated memory, identity, and industrial transformation amidst the division and merging of East and West Germany.

• Format: The journal pairs critical essays by notable art historians and curators—including Jan-Christopher Horak and Wilfried Wiegand—with portfolios representing diverse artistic paradigms across the German photographic landscape.

Key Movements & Themes

1. The Düsseldorf School & Objective Realism: Features prominent work from Bernd and Hilla Becher and their influential students, such as Thomas Struth, Thomas Ruff, and Candida Höfer, highlighting cool, typological precision, architectural form, and objective detachment.

2. Subjective Realism & Staged Photography: Explores expressive, conceptual, and performance-based approaches by artists such as Astrid Klein, Jürgen Klauke, and Katharina Sieverding, who utilized montage, large-scale prints, and body art to address trauma, media, and personal identity.

3. East German Perspectives & Everyday Life: Contrasts official and underground documentary practices from former East German (GDR) photographers, recording quiet isolation, industrial decay, and everyday human presence behind the Iron Curtain.

4. Memory, History, and Identity: Across all portfolios, the issue reflects a deep engagement with 20th-century history—confronting the scars of World War II, the Cold War, and the complex psychological landscape of a reunited nation.