Everyone is taking pictures? At the Jena City Museum, photography becomes city history
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Photography as a mirror of everyday life: Jena discovers its photographic history
The exhibition Everyone is taking pictures? Everyday and Amateur Photography in Jena at the Jena City Museum takes visitors through more than a century of local photographic culture. From early amateur images through the photo circles of the GDR to today's imaging practices on social media, it opens up a multifaceted view of how photography shapes memory, community, and self-understanding.
Between family album and city history
Historical photographs from the collections of the City Museum, private archives, and photography clubs reveal how people documented their living environments. Photographs appear not only as historical sources but also as personal testimonies of celebrations, friendships, work, leisure, and social change.
From analog images to digital image flood
The exhibition spans from the beginnings of amateur photography to the present. Analog image practices meet current works by social media photographers. In this comparison, it becomes clear how technical possibilities, image aesthetics, and forms of public attention change, while the need for memory and exchange remains constant.
Photography as a social connector
At the center is the question of what our images tell us about ourselves and about Jena. The examination of the works draws attention to motifs, framing, materiality, and context of use. This creates an aesthetic experience that makes photography simultaneously a creative form of expression, a medium of memory, and a component of cultural education.
An art experience for photography and city history enthusiasts
The atmosphere of the exhibition is enhanced by the dialogue between past and present. Visitors encounter familiar everyday scenes as well as photographic documents that accompany the transformation of Jena over generations. The curation connects everyday history, media history, and visual culture into a vivid exhibition about photography as a social practice.
Conclusion: Seeing Jena anew through the camera
Everyone is taking pictures? invites us to critically and curiously examine our own world of images. The exhibition connects local history with current questions of digital visibility and makes photography as a living memory of the city tangible. A visit to the Jena City Museum enriches cultural perception and opens up new perspectives on seemingly familiar images.
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- Website: https://www.stadtmuseum-jena.de/de/1041194
