Ostkreuz

Jubiläumsedition 25 Jahre

With photos by Marc Beckmann, Sibylle Bergemann, Jörg Brüggemann, Espen Eichhöfer, Sibylle Fendt, Annette Hauschild, Harald Hauswald, Tobias Kruse,Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler, Dawin Meckel, Thomas Meyer, Julian Röder, Frank Schinski, Jordis Antonia Sch


In 1990, shortly after the Berlin Wall fell, seven East German photographers founded the Berlin-based agency OSTKREUZ. Their members quickly became internationally known through assignments from important magazines and newspapers such as Stern, GEO, Newsweek, and The New York Times, as well as in numerous exhibitions and publications. Taking after the Parisian agency Magnum, OSTKREUZ is the most successful photographer-led agency in Germany today. They now have twenty photographers, and almost all of them have received national or international awards. With different backgrounds and work methods, they are a colorful mixture of East and West, but they all have one thing in common: their socially committed view of the world. Photography as attitude.
In celebration of the 25th anniversary of OSTKREUZ, we are very pleased to be able to offer you a tremendously rich anniversary edition. The box contains high-quality pigment prints by all twenty of the agency’s photographers. “Each one of them sees the world with different eyes; everyone is interested in something else about it; everyone goes off in their own directions. But there is one starting point for all of them, where they always meet again. This point is called OSTKREUZ. . . . It means coming closer to reality. Finding in it the material to work with. While doing this work, recognizing things, photographing them, and remaining honest in this process. . . . OSTKREUZ means being sincere, no more and no less.”