Clear precision in urban vision


At first glance it is not clear if Cathrin Schulz’s works are in fact photographs – so delicate are the lines in her series Urban Visions – of major cities such as Berlin, Cape Town, Shanghai, and Miami. These metropolises have inspired the Berlin photographer to extract a distilled tranquility upon which we can project our memories and emotions.


The images emphasize architectural distinctiveness with their brilliantly clear precision. In one Schulz allows Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie by Mies van der Rohe to shine sublimely, while in another the roof construction over Olympic Stadium reveals a monumental symmetry. A close-up of the German capital’s Television Tower underscores the building’s graphic and aesthetic perfection. Through unusual perspectives and the accentuation of details, well-known objects again become visible.



The works of Schulz draw from the cool objectivity that presents their subjects without bias. Through the digital editing – pushing contrasts and saturation to the limits while muting and holding back on the coloring – Schulz has found a mode of expression all her own. By distancing reality with colors and contrasts, she undercuts the documentarian’s objective gaze and creates space for subjectivity. She freezes impressions of the urban landscape in a fleeting sequence of images that suggest both silence and timelessness.