Judy Dent in Uli Richter

The Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin is currently showing a major retrospective of the work of prolific fashion photographer F. C. Gundlach, an exhibition which also tells part of the story of Berlin as a city of fashion.

Born in 1923, Gundlach was based in Berlin and Hamburg in the 1950s when he began publishing fashion photography in magazines such as Film and Frau. Gundlach often posed models outdoors in urban settings; his portfolio includes images shot in front of the Berliner Funktrum radio tower.  Local designer Uli Richter’s clothes were photographed in ever popular Kreuzberg, in front of a wall grafittied with a childish poem about a drunk mouse!

Gundlach’s shots show classic, scuptural and powerful clothes with details such as wide, rounded shoulders and large buttons.  The models are statuesque – carefully posed, rather than captured in flight. They are not uncomfortable but they are constrained and streamlined: wide at the top and narrow on the bottom, like upsidedown triangles; impervious to their dynamic urban settings. If the women were moving then it was because they were being transported, as with the images of Judy Dent on a bicycle, in a car, or at a ski resport.

This severe posing is one reason why Gundlach was so succesful working as a fashion photographer outside the studio.  His camera work demonstrates an intense depth of field with long perspective lines, so that blurred backgrounds contrast perfectly with the models and their clothes as the focal point of the image. Even in very exotic settings, such as location shoots in Egypt in front of the statue of Ramses, amongst Bedouin driving sheep, our attention is always drawn to the garments.

Graphic lines in Giza

Berlin was still an important centre of fashion production during the 1950s. The images show the products of important Modeschöpfer or designers such as Uli Richter and Staeber Seger.

Inside the exhibition I spoke to a German lady who remembers the images of F. C. Gundlach documenting the work of Uli Richter, who she tells me, had many shops in front of the Mauerpark area of Berlin at this time, and was apparently a sensational success in New York when he launched there in 1956.

The exhibition is expansive, taking in documentary photography work in Hong Kong, event photography of stars at the 1960 Berlin Film Festival, celebrity portraiture of Romy Schneider and others, and colourful cover images for Brigette Magazine in the 1960s. This is therefore a great retrospective not only of a lesser-known yet talented photographer, but also of the industrial history of a world city.

Until 14^th March 2010.

If you can’t make it to the exhibition then look out for the forthcoming F.C. Gundlach. Das Fotografische Werk by Klaus Honnef and F.C. Gundlach.

www.gropiusbau.de