Nadine Dinter PR is an owner-managed agency for media relations, PR consulting, and art administration. With its special focus on photography, Nadine Dinter PR supports cultural institutions in Germany and beyond, including museums, galleries, foundations, festivals, and private collections. The Berlin-based agency also works across a variety of sectors in the fields of contemporary art, lifestyle, and art & commerce.
Berlin, Berlin. 20 years of the Helmut Newton Foundation
The Helmut Newton Foundation celebrates its 20th anniversary in June 2024 with the group show “Berlin, Berlin”. This exhibition also celebrates the city where Newton was born. In the fall of 2003, Helmut Newton established his foundation in Berlin to house parts of his archive, which opened to the public in June 2004 at the historic Landwehrkasino next to Zoologischer Garten station. It was from this very station that Helmut Neustädter, facing constant threat of deportation as a Jew, fled Berlin in early December 1938 – returning 65 years later as the world-famous photographer Helmut Newton. Since then, the Helmut Newton Foundation and the Berlin Art Library have jointly resided in the historic building now known as the Museum of Photography. After the death of June Newton (also known as Alice Springs) in April 2021, the entire collection of works by Helmut Newton and Alice Springs, along with all archival materials, have been housed in the foundation’s archive.
Helmut Newton trained under the legendary photographer Yva in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1936 to 1938, eventually carving his path in the three genres of fashion, portraits, and nudes, following in her footsteps. After stints in Singapore and Melbourne, Newton’s career took off in Paris in the early 1960s, a period during which he frequently returned to Berlin for fashion shoots in magazines like Constanze, Adam, and Vogue Europe. In this exhibition, we encounter Newton’s models posing at Brandenburg Gate, even before the construction of the Berlin Wall. In 1963, he produced Mata Hari Spy Story, a fashion series featuring Brigitte Schilling that focused on the Berlin Wall, causing quite a stir. In 1979, the newly relaunched German Vogue commissioned Newton to revisit his childhood and youth in West Berlin, visualizing current fashion trends. The result was a multi-page portfolio titled Berlin, Berlin! that inspired the name of this anniversary exhibition. Later works included cover stories for Zeit magazine (1990), Männer Vogue (1991) and the Süddeutsche Zeitung magazine (2001).
The other exhibition rooms recontextualize Newton’s iconic and lesser-known images of Berlin from the 1930s to the 2000s. From vintage prints by Yva to Barbara Klemm’s political photojournalism, these images span the Golden Twenties into which Newton was born, the devastation of war, reconstruction, the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall, and the early 21st century.
Yevgeny Chaldei, a Russian-Ukrainian photographer, captured iconic images capturing the ground battle around the Reichstag in the final weeks of World War II in the spring of 1945. Meanwhile, Hein Gorny flew over the city the following autumn alongside Adolph C. Byers, documenting Berlin’s ruinous state after the war’s end through striking aerial photographs. In the late 1950s, the precarious situation in the city slowly stabilized, reflected in the works of photographers like Arno Fischer, Will McBride, and F.C. Gundlach, who could still move between the eastern and western parts of the city. However, the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961 drastically altered the city’s dynamics once again. 1966 saw the emergence of the student protest movement in West Berlin, documented by photographers like Günter Zint. Meanwhile, an archival work by Arwed Messmer creatively reinterprets historical photographs compiled by the West Berlin police during this same politically charged period.
The Berlin Wall emerges as a recurring motif throughout the exhibition. Twelve folios of found photographs by East German border guards, curated and annotated by Arwed Messmer and Annett Gröschner, offer a detailed look at the Wall in the mid-1960s. The Wall resurfaces in other images as well, reflecting the divided city beyond famous sites like the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, collectively capturing the mythos of Berlin and its representation. The exhibition fosters an engaging dialogue between pivotal projects that have shaped photographic and film history: Maria Sewcz’s series inter esse is juxtaposed with Michael Schmidt’s Waffenruhe and film stills from Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire. Notably, these works all originate from the late 1980s, predating the fall of the Berlin Wall. The exhibition’s final chapter revolves around the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification, featuring photographs capturing these events and their aftermath. This period is represented by Ulrich Wüst’s Leporellos capturing a city in transition, as well as large-format color photographs by Thomas Florschuetz and Harf Zimmermann depicting iconic central Berlin landmarks. The latter include interiors of the former Palace of the Republic and intriguing new perspectives of the Berlin TV Tower on Alexanderplatz and the Friedrichwerdersche Kirche by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. They are visual testaments to a city fated “to always become and never be” (Karl Scheffler).
Newton’s perspective of his hometown, presented through approximately 100 photographs, is complemented, commented on, and reflected by an equally extensive array of images and approaches from fellow photographers and filmmakers throughout the decades in the adjoining rooms. This juxtaposition, fostering reciprocal references, echoes the approach adopted by the Helmut Newton Foundation for the 2022 group show Hollywood – another iconic location of significance to Newton’s visual oeuvre.
TORSO RELOADED II
On 2 July 2024, coinciding with the official kick-off of the renowned photography festival Rencontres d’Arles, the Berlin-based photographer Nadine Dinter will unveil her newest solo show at the beloved BISOUS Concept Store in the heart of Arles. “Torso Reloaded II” is the second installment of an exhibition cycle Dinter originally developed in 2012 with former erotic male model Benjamin Godfre as an homage to Andy Warhol’s infamous 1977 “Torso” series.
This latest exhibition features both framed works and an intervention with the store’s own design. Primarily showcasing new torso portraits captured by Dinter between Winter 2022 and Fall 2023 in Berlin, Paris, and Arles, the presentation also includes female torso images, representing a broader range of body types and perspectives. Alongside bodyscapes of internationally booked model Madame Sophie and fellow artist Catrine, Torso Reloaded II exhibits alluring torso portraits of French model Lucas Fortrye and French tattoo artist Ange Mathieu. Additionally, Dinter photographed Berlin entrepreneur Carlos and his impressive full body tattoo, adding further narrative depth to this latest installment of her ongoing “Torso Tales” series.
Echoing Nadine Dinter’s previous “Torso Reloaded” exhibition at HAZEGALLERY in October 2022, the individual body embellishments like tattoos and piercings stand in for depictions of the model’s faces, encapsulating each model’s personal history as told through their scars, musculature, and tattoo art. Consequently, the bodies appear intimately near without being overtly sexualized.
Till Brönner: Identity – Landscape Europe
From 14 April to 25 August 2024, the Ludwig Múzeum – Museum for Contemporary Art in Budapest presents “Identity – Landscape Europe,” the latest exhibition by acclaimed artist Till Brönner. Across 450 m2, around 60 to 70 works, including a wealth of new photographs, will be presented to the public. This solo exhibition will be complemented by a multimedia program featuring lectures, musical interventions, and panel discussions.
After well-received exhibitions supported by the Brost-Stiftung at MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Moderne Kunst in Duisburg and Ludwig Museum Koblenz, the esteemed Ludwig Múzeum Budapest is the third venue for this photographic showcase, testifying to Europe’s evolving cultural identity through the works of Till Brönner.
The exhibition “Identity – Landscape Europe” stems from Brönner’s 2018/2019 “Melting Pott” series, commissioned by the Brost-Stiftung and Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur e.V. Bonn. For this series, Brönner photographed one of Germany’s most diverse and complex regions. With his unique perspective on faces, industrial architecture, natural and cultural landscapes, and the coexistence of different ethnicities and religions, Brönner portrayed not only notable figures like footballer Mario Götze but also delved deeply into the iconic mining industry of the Ruhr region. His evocative portraits and scenes, some taken under extreme heat and other challenging conditions, form a compelling long-term exploration of the region.
Brönner’s photographic documentation of the Ruhr region’s people and sociocultural relationships, along with their impact on European landscapes, provided the foundation for this new, expanded presentation of his work.
CHRONORAMA. Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century
The Helmut Newton Foundation and Pinault Collection proudly present CHRONORAMA. Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century. Following its highly successful premiere at Palazzo Grassi in Venice, the collaborative project will be shown at the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin starting 15 February 2024. CHRONORAMA marks the latest partnership between the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin and leading international collections. In 2018, it hosted Between Art & Fashion, with 223 works by 85 photographers from the collection of Carla Sozzani, former editor-in-chief of the Italian Elle and Vogue.
Now, the foundation unveils François Pinault’s recently acquired collection of exceptional photographs, including portraits, fashion, still lifes, architecture, photojournalism, as well as early illustrations from the legendary Condé Nast Archive. Showcasing nearly 250 works created between 1910 and the late-1970s for Condé Nast’s style-defining magazines, this chronological presentation traces the evolution of the fashion industry against the backdrop of radical changes in western culture, spanning subjects from the sophisticated to the sublime. Naturally, Helmut Newton’s works are also part of this remarkable collection, as he contributed extensively to Condé Nast magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair from the 1950s onward. Most of Newton’s fashion photographs featured in this show have not been previously exhibited in Berlin.
Furthermore, the exhibition brings together an impressive array of Helmut Newton’s contemporaries and predecessors, including trailblazing photographers like Diane Arbus, Cecil Beaton, David Bailey, John Deakin, Robert Frank, Evelyn Hofer, Horst P. Horst, Peter Hujar, William Klein, Lisette Model, Ugo Mulas, Irving Penn, Bert Stern, Deborah Turbeville, and Chris von Wangenheim.
CHRONORAMA comprises a breathtaking compendium of valuable vintage prints, many of which served as the basis for high-quality images in the magazines of their time. These photographic treasures transport today’s viewers through the history of the 20th century, offering insight into fashion staging and the evolving interpretation of fashion trends as well as culture, lifestyle, and world events. Organized by decade, the immersive tour begins in 1910, one year after Condé Nast acquired Vogue magazine, transforming it into a leading platform for fashion, style, and beauty. In those early days, photographs were still relatively rare, so abundant drawings by renowned fashion illustrators of the era also adorn the exhibition walls. Unlike the photography back then, the illustrations gracing the magazine’s pages and covers were in color – an important selling point for Condé Nast and its magazines. The dynamics between the two mediums underwent a seismic shift as photography rose to prominence in the ensuing decade in Vogue and Vanity Fair and other leading publications. Black-and-white photography long remained the standard, so the earliest color image on display dates to 1952, shot by Irving Penn, who also created over 100 Vogue covers.
Besides fashion, CHRONORAMA places people at the heart of its captivating chronicle, with numerous portraits of luminaries from the realms of music, art, sports, and politics – a veritable Who’s Who of the 20th century’s most celebrated figures. The exhibition also surveys lavish interiors, beauty salons, artistic still lifes, photographic experiments, and examples of journalistic photography, capturing war-torn London and the newly erected Empire State Building in New York. All these facets were published concurrently across Condé Nast’s magazines – and now this extraordinary treasure trove of images awaits discovery in Berlin.
Save The Dates
27 April 2024, 12 noon - 3 pm:
6 June 2024, 7 pm:
2 July 2024, 6 pm:
18 YEARS