Helmut Newton’s Legacy and Hollywood, Candida Höfer, and photos for children are the main exhibitions in the Museum of Photography in Berlin in 2022.
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
8 October 2022 – 19 February 2023
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):
Note new opening times for many Berlin museums from mid-April 2024. Timeslot reservations are essential only for the Caspar David Friedrich exhibition (until 4 August 2024) but sensible (and sometimes needed in busy periods!) for the Alte Nationalgalerie, Gemäldegalerie, Neue Nationalgalerie, Neues Museum, and Pergamon – Das Panorama. (The Pergamon Museum itself is closed until 2027!). Timeslots are released only a few weeks in advance. Online tickets are available from GetYourGuide, which seems to have timeslots available when SMB has already sold out. Many passes and multi-museum tickets are again sold (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 but pick up free audioguides first.
For more general information on the Berlin State Museums:
- Top National Museums and Galleries in Berlin (brief overview)
- Berlin State Museums: What Is Seen Where? (a short description of the collections in the different museums)
- Opening Hours of Berlin State Museums (2024) — major changes from mid-April 2024!
- 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).
- Save with the Berlin Museum Pass – 30 museums (including all the SMB museums) in three days for €32 – a fantastic savings deal.
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (official website in German & English).
News & Temporary Exhibitions:
- 2024: Overview of Top Berlin Exhibitions in 2024, Caspar David Friedrich in the Alte Nationalgalerie (tickets are selling out fast!), Frans Hals in the Gemäldegalerie, Neue Nationalgalerie (20th-century art) Hamburger Bahnhof Contemporary Art, Kupferstichkabinett (Prints and Drawings), and Photography Museum.
- Museums closed in 2024: The Pergamon Museum is closed until 2027 (some sculptures are on display in Das Panorama), the Museum Berggruen is closed until 2025 (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:
- Alte Nationalgalerie with Caspar David Friedrich paintings (2024 special exhibition).
- Altes Museum with Greek, Etruscan, and Roman art.
- Ethnological and Asian Art Museums in the Humboldtforum.
- Friedrichswerdersche Kirche (free admission) with a collection of 19th-century German sculptures.
- Gemäldegalerie with its collection of German and Dutch Old Masters and Italian paintings.
- Kunstgewerbemuseum (Decorative Arts).
- Musical Instruments Museum near the Berliner Philharmonie.
- Neue Nationalgalerie — 20th-century art.
- Neues Museum with bust of Nefertiti.
- Pergamon Museum with Ishtar Gate — the whole Pergamonmuseum is closed from October 2023 until 2027. Some Greek sculptures are shown in the
- Pergamon Museum Panorama Exhibition with Asisi panoramic painting and Greek statues.
- Photography — Helmut Newton collection and historic photos.
Previous Temporary Exhibitions:
- 2023: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2023 — overview, in the Kulturforum, in the Neue Nationalgalerie, on Museum Island, and the Museum of Photography.
- 2022: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2022 — overview, in the Kulturforum (David Hockney), in the Neue Nationalgalerie, on Museumsinsel, Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art, and the Museum of Photography.
- 2021: Top Special Temporary Exhibitions in 2021 — including the reopening of the Neue Nationalgalerie, as well as the Ethnological and Asian Art Museums in the Humboldt Forum.
- 2020: Highlights, in Kulturforum, on Museum Island, in the Hamburger Bahnhof, smaller museums, and the opening of the Humboldt Forum.
