extended until 13 march
The world of the circus is a recurring theme in the photographic work by Johanna Maria Fritz.
The young photographer was born in 1994 in Baden Baden and has lived in Berlin since she was 16. Johanna studied photography at the renowned Ostkreuz School and has been a full member of the Ostkreuz agency since 2019.
Johanna's enthusiasm for the circus has accompanied her since early childhood. The first photographic examination of this topic arose from her strongly atmospheric thesis Sirkus Island.
This thesis documents the life and work of the circus artists within the only circus in Iceland.
Since then, circus schools and artists in different parts of the world have always been a preferred topic in Johanna's work. Fritz spent a lot of time on site with the artists to develop these projects and lived alongside with them.
In addition to works from Sirkus Island, the exhibition CIRCUS also includes works from the series Like a Bird, for which the photographer was awarded the Art Prize for Photography in 2018 and the 1st German Peace Prize for Photography in 2019.
This series also addresses various fascinating circus cultures and their protagonists.
In various countries in the Middle East and Africa, which are not always peaceful, the protagonists find themselves in a politically difficult situation.
In her work, Johanna Fritz succeeds in showing very impressively the fascination of artistry, costumes, juggling, which is reinforced by this strange seeming environment.
There is the cowboy on the beach, the acrobat in the field or the stilt walker encountering soldiers, all of them haunting, powerful images.
