In 2022, the Museum of Photography (Museum for Fotografie) in Berlin will present a retrospective of the legacy of Helmut Newton in celebration of his centenary. It will be followed by a special exhibition of his famous Hollywood photos. The Kunstbibliothek arranges a temporary exhibition of the photos of Candida Höfer followed by a special photography for children exhibition. Buy tickets for the Museum of Photography online in advance as time-slot reservations are essential.
Museum of Photography in Berlin
The Museum of Photography (Museum für Fotografie) is one of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin institutions that is often missed by visitors. It is not in the traditional museum areas of Museums Island or the Culture Forum but rather on the “wrong side” of the Zoologischer Garten Bahnhof station in the western parts of central Berlin.
The museum is home to the vast collection of photography of the Kunstbibliothek and the works of the Helmut Newton Foundation. Photos from these collections and others are used for frequently changing temporary exhibitions.
The Museum of Photography is open Tuesday to Sunday from 11:00 to 19:00 (20:00 on Thursdays). Buy tickets online as time-slot reservations are essential.
Helmut Newton Exhibitions in the Berlin Museum of Photography in 2022
The lower two floors of the Museum for Fotografie are used by the Helmut Newton Foundation. The permanent exhibition of “Helmut Newton’s Private Property” is enhanced by temporary exhibitions of the famous German-Australian photographer’s work.
The following two special exhibitions are planned for 2022:
Helmut Newton: Legacy
31 October 2021 to 22 May 2022
A retrospective exhibition of around 300 photos that chronologically trace the life and visual legacy of the Berlin-born Helmut Newton (1921-2004). Originally planned for the centenary of his birth, the exhibition was postponed by nearly a year due to Corona. A special room is dedicated to the work of his wife June Newton aka Alice Springs who died in April 2021.
Helmut Newton: Hollywood
3 June – 19 November 2022
Helmut and June Newton moved from Paris to Monte Carlo at the end of 1981, but they always spent the winter months in Los Angeles – usually at the Chateau Marmont Hotel. In the 1980s and 1990s, Helmut Newton took portraits of a whole range of actors, directors, and musicians in and around Hollywood for numerous magazines. Newton always developed a personalized setting for each of his subjects. In addition to these portraits, he also shot numerous nudes for Playboy in Los Angeles.
However, this group exhibition does not just showcase Newton’s work, but also presents other photographers and their interpretations of Hollywood, always in larger groups of works, including pictures by George Hoyningen-Huene, Steve Schapiro, Alex Prager, Julius Shulman, Michael Dressel, Jens Liebchen – and of course Alice Springs, with a series of pictures taken on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood.
Further Temporary Exhibitions in the Berlin Museum for Photography in 2022
Two special exhibitions arranged by the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in the Museum of Photography in 2022 are:
Candida Höfer
24 March – 28 August 2022
Candida Höfer (* 1944) explores built spaces in her photography. Her world-famous interiors focus on libraries, museums, restaurants, theatres, and other public spaces, allowing us to experience architecture in a new way. The images of the interior spaces are as austere as they are sensitively composed. People are not visible in the photographs, but their silent traces are always present.
Höfer’s photographs will be exhibited alongside photos of interiors from the Kunstbibliothek’s more than 150-year-old Photography Collection, facilitating a dialogue between applied photography and artistic work. Around 150 works will be shown in total. These include photographs from zoos and lesser-known series from Höfer’s early work, as well as their rarely shown counterparts from the Photography Collection.
A special exhibition of the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and the IKS – Institut für Kunstdokumentation
Bird’s-Eye View – Worm’s-Eye View. Photography for Children
For the first time, the Museum für Fotografie is opening its doors explicitly to children. Some 160 works illustrate the uses of photography and its compositional and expressive forms, from the early years right through to the present.
Artists such as Lyonel Feininger or Hannah Höch dealt with the connection between childhood and imaginative perception in their work. In this vein, the exhibition is broken up into 10 associative sections, each of which features a wealth of diverse images and stories. They touch upon themes related to conceiving, collecting, and narrating images; to reading numbers, letters, or clouds; to discoveries in everyday life, at school or while traveling; to natural phenomena in the city and the countryside, family albums, and photo booths. The play of color, light, reflections, and materials are as important here as cryptic elements or moments of fun and seriousness.
A selection of printed matter, drawings, sculptural objects, and films round off the show, which focuses on the concrete and sensuous materiality of original photographs, and allows visitors to attend a “school of seeing”.
VogelschauundFroschperspektive.FotografiefürKinder — A special exhibition of the Kunstbibliothek – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.
More on the Berlin State Museums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin):
Many passes and multi-museum tickets offer savings (Kulturforum / Museums Island). Individual museum ticket prices range from €8 to €14 (€20 for special exhibitions). Online tickets are skip-the-line — go directly to the gallery entrance to scan the code.
For more general information on the Berlin State Museums:
Ticket Prices for Berlin State Museums (prices for museums, temporary exhibitions, combination tickets, online time-slot reservations). Buying online from GetYourGuide is easy. A ticket with a QR or bar code is scanned directly at the entrance — no need to pass by the ticket desk (but pick up the free audio guide before entering).
Museums closed in 2025: The Pergamon Museum is closed until 2027 (some sculptures are on display in Das Panorama), the Museum Berggruen is closed until 2026 (much of its collection is traveling the world), the permanent collection of the German History Museum (Zeughaus) is closed but temporary exhibitions continue in the Pei Building.
More Museum Reviews and Museum-Specific Information:
Home » Germany » 2022: Top Special Exhibitions in the Museum of Photography in Berlin
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