The Photography Expert Who Does Not Get Tired to Push Its Boundaries.
Dr. Matthias Harder, director and curator of the Helmut Newton Foundation, knows the vast archive of the German-Australian photographer better than almost anyone. He has now spent more than two decades working at the museum, established in 2004. The numerous exhibitions he has organised and curated not only showcase its visual heritage but also bring it into dialogue with contemporary practices and ideas. In doing so, Harder continuously demonstrates how interpretation, meaning, and context can be re-examined – without rendering the photography obsolete, but rather allowing us to expand the conversation.
Photography by David von Becker, Courtesy of Viktoria Binschtok, Klemm's Berlin.
Harder’s career as a curator began early on, rooted in his deep engagement with photography. A decisive moment in his career came through a personal encounter with Helmut Newton. Following an initial meeting on the occasion of Newton’s 80th birthday and an in-depth conversation with the photographer in December 2003, Harder joined the newly established Helmut Newton Foundation. Today, he serves as both curator and director of the foundation, where he is responsible for its exhibition programme, developing his curatorial concepts in parallel with spatial planning while continually realising new formats.
The exhibition Rooms/Stages pushes this ongoing dialogue in a compelling direction. Newton’s iconic imagery, the beautiful people, flawless bodies, and almost too-perfect scenes, is juxtaposed with works that are largely devoid of human presence yet rich in spatial connotations, long central to Newton’s oeuvre. When Harder speaks about the psychology of space, both in situ and within the works, he does so with palpable enthusiasm: “The exhibition moves from physical space through pictorial space to the stage – and in the end, we ourselves are standing on that stage. Helmut Newton, too, never simply photo- graphed spaces, but always conceived of them as stages – whether a hotel room, a street, or an interior.”
When Harder speaks about the psychology of space, both within the exhibition itself and within the works, his enthusiasm is palpable: The exhibition moves from physical space to pictorial space and then to the stage – and in the end, we ourselves are standing on that stage.
Courtesy of Viktoria Binschtok, Klemm's Berlin.
Helmut Newton, whose work is continually recontextualised through evolving presentations at his Berlin foundation, transformed diverse locations into stages, as the second part of the group exhibition demonstrates. “One could almost say: where Helmut Newton left off, many contemporary approaches pick up today – at least in their engagement with space and staging.”
Rooms/Stages is on until November 2026 at the Helmut Newton Foundation, Berlin.