Fortschritt als Versprechen

Dramatically lit production halls, boiling steel, broad smiles on soot-smeared faces—behind these all but iconic motifs of industrial photography lies the powerful narrative of economic boom and progress.

From the depiction of prosperity to the image of a new future, the exhibition and catalogue are the first to systematically examine the visual language of commissioned industrial photography in the two systems of divided Germany—capitalism and socialism—for differences and similarities in the depiction of progress and to show how photography and its contextualization convey these narratives of economic upturn. Distinguished photo historians illuminate the ways in which the concept of progress was negotiated at different times and how it has changed. "Vorsprung durch Technik"—industry was long a source of identity for Germany. With de-industrialization and the limits of growth, the question of the future of the genre of industrial photography also arises.