Whether August Sander, Robert Capa, or Barbara Klemm – the exhibition history of the spectrum Photogalerie in Hanover reads like a who’s who of the history of photography. Its founders, Joachim Giesel, Heinrich Riebesehl, and Peter Gauditz, made history in 1972 with the opening of one of Europe’s first photography galleries. By 1991, the spectrum Photogalerie had presented 88 exhibitions. In his commitment to photography, Giesel’s self-image as a mediator, curator, and advocate for photography is revealed. While photography had long been indispensable in the press and advertising by the early 1970s, it still received little recognition as an artistic medium. The documenta did not present photography as an independent art form until its 5th edition in 1972 as an independent art form in the section Idea and Idea-Light but even there the reactions were ambivalent. In light of this lack of social and institutional acceptance, the photographers Giesel, Riebesehl, and Gauditz founded, in December 1971, together with director Wolfgang Borges, photographer Karin Blüher, as a five-member board, along with sixteen others, including Kurt Julius and Umbo (Otto Umbehr), initially the “Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Fotografie” (Society for the Promotion of Photography), whose goal is, as stated in their application for support to the Cultural Office, “to introduce a broad public in Hanover to historical and contemporary trends in photography.” Four months later, the spectrum Photogalerie opened with a retrospective of Hein Gorny. Public funding enabled the young gallery owners to organize exhibitions alongside their primary work as photographers and independently of commercial success. By establishing a network that forges connections with museums, galleries, and studios across Europe, they are doing pioneering work. These contacts form the basis for exhibitions ranging from Man Ray and Henri Cartier-Bresson to the East German photographer Gundula Schulze-Eldowy. With its diverse program, the gallery lives up to its name—presenting a broad spectrum of regional and international, historical and contemporary perspectives. Their exhibition activities contribute significantly to the recognition of photography as an art form in Germany, and with the relocation of the spectrum Photogalerie to the newly built Kunstmuseum Hannover with the Sprengel Collection (today the Sprengel Museum Hannover) in 1979, photography is integrated into the museum space. Gauditz, Giesel, and Riebesehl remained there as curators until 1991, when they considered their goal of institutionalizing photography—through the establishment of a dedicated photography department—to have been achieved. Thomas Weski, who had gained insight into the gallery as Giesel’s apprentice and organized exhibitions on behalf of the three founders from 1986/87 to 1991, subsequently became the first curator of photography at the Sprengel Museum. Together with Ulrike Schneider, he presented the retrospective Spectrum-Photogalerie 1972–1991. Ein Rückblick in 1995. The exhibition catalogue highlights: “The fact that the Sprengel Museum Hannover is today one of the few German art museums that consistently presents photography as an independent art form is largely due to the dedication of Peter Gauditz, Joachim Giesel, Heinrich Riebesehl, and the many other staff members of the spectrum Photogalerie.” On the occasion of its fiftieth anniversary, the gallery will be honored with the exhibition “Vom Beginnen. 50 Jahre spectrum Photogalerie 2022” (From the Beginning. 50 Years of Spectrum Photogalerie 2022).
MATHILDE BLUM
| The founders of the spectrum Photogalerie, Joachim Giesel, Heinrich Riebesehl, and Peter Gauditz (below), at the exhibition Larry Fink, Lee Friedlander, Grant Mudford, spectrum Photogalerie, July 2–August 10, 1980, at the Kunstmuseum Hannover with the Sprengel Collection (now the Sprengel Museum Hannover), Hannover, 1980 (photographed by Thomas Weski during his apprenticeship with Joachim Giesel) (Gelatin silver print on baryta paper, 2024)
| Hein Gorny, Untitled (Collar), 1928/1972 (Private collection of Joachim Giesel)
| spectrum Photogalerie (ed.): Hein Gorny. Exhibition catalogue, spectrum Photogalerie, Hanover, April 7 to May 14, 1972, Hannover 1972
| Application by spectrum Photogalerie for funding from the Cultural Affairs Office of Hanover, Hanover, December 10, 1971
| The board of spectrum Photogalerie (from left to right: Peter Gauditz, Heinrich Riebesehl, Karin Blüher, Wolfgang Borges, and Joachim Giesel) at the exhibition Charlotte March – Models and People, Hanover, 1973
| spectrum Photogalerie (ed.): Charlotte March. Models and People. Exhibition catalogue, spectrum Photogalerie, Hanover, November 16 to December 23, 1973, Hanover 1973
| Joachim Giesel, typescript of the opening speech for the exhibition Picasso in Photographs by Bill Brandt, Madame d’Ora, Herbert List, Arnold Newman, Irving Penn, and photographs by Brassaï, January 27, 1987, at spectrum Photogalerie, Hanover, January 28 to March 1, 1987
| Aenne Biermann, Rubber Plant, no location, circa 1927
| Joachim Giesel, typescript of the opening speech for the exhibition Aenne Biermann. Photographs 1925–1933, June 14, 1988, spectrum Photogalerie, Hanover, June 15 to July 22, 1988
