EIKON #104
International Magazine for Photography and Media Art
Regarding photography, the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia has a lot to offer: photokina, which now takes place in Cologne every year, is a world-leading event for photographic and video technology, where most recently 800 exhibitors attracted about 180,000 visitors from all over the world. Quarter of a century after the founding of this important photo fair, Bernd and Hilla Becher drew international attention with their development of the Düsseldorf School of Photography and their unmistakable visual style; not a few of the former school leavers are now among the most successful photo artists, and of those a relatively large number—no doubt for good reasons—base their activities in the above-mentioned region. Currently, a potpourri of festivals (Düsseldorf Photo Weekend, Düsseldorf Photo, Photoszene Cologne), institutional exhibitions and the program of the galleries, located mainly in the cities of Cologne and Düsseldorf, ensure that photography is a fixed component of art events there.