Before and after the wall: German photography in discourse and practice

This special issue of Visual Resources sets out to give a selective insight into developments in the history and theory of German photography. These developments demonstrate continuation and change and a lively theoretical as well as institutional debate about photography's place within the larger context of visual culture. Articles about the landscapes of museum curating and private collecting, the contemporary photo scene, questions of medial self-positioning, recent scholarly approaches towards the medium, as well as the interrelation between cognition theory and contemporary photographic practice demonstrate photography's participation in a lively visual culture. Germany was chosen as an example suited to describe a situation typical of photography's development within the realms of theory and practice, but it also serves as an interesting individual case study where this medium was forced to unfold in two different cultures for forty years and to “reunite” during the last fifteen.