#francke

In 2015, Andreas Herzau spent one entire year regularly visiting the Francke Foundations in Halle. His focus was not so much on the remarkable architecture of Francke’s ›school town‹ as the people in this historical space today, shaping life in the Francke Foundations’ educational cosmos. Each photograph is a narrative, asking the viewer to read the story it tells. The images do not only portray young people relaxing set against dramatic backdrops, yet also see a world shaped by the needs of yesterday juxtaposed with an unbiased appropriation of historical space. They reveal everyday experiences, capture moments of joy and solemnity, work and rest, the old and the new, all set in the heart of a space over three hundred years old. 

These works, which form a fascinating study of the Francke Foundations, are presented as a photobook accompanied by an essay (in English and German) by Hortensia Völckers offering an introduction to the different facets of daily life here.

Andreas Herzau (b. 1962) is one of Germany’s best-known photojournalists. In his works, he has pushed back the boundaries of classical photojournalism in individual and often surprising ways. His photobooks on New York, Moscow and Germany over 15 years after reunification have been extremely well received and won numerous prizes.