20 years of the F.C. Gundlach Foundation – 20 years of discernment and expertise in photography

20 years of the F.C. Gundlach Foundation… big plans for the next 20 years!

The F.C. Gundlach Foundation has been active in the field of photography for 20 years. "With expertise and discerning judgment, we promote the appreciation of photography as a cultural asset, in Hamburg and far beyond," says Sebastian Lux, Director of the F.C. Gundlach Foundation. "We advise, curate, unearth treasures from archives, and send images and entire exhibitions to museums worldwide. We do all this in the spirit of our founder, the photographer F.C. Gundlach, who himself united many aspects of the wonderfully diverse medium of photography in his prolific work."

Photography defined F.C. Gundlach's life: as a photographer, gallery owner, collector, teacher, museum director, benefactor, and patron. His activities have significantly contributed to Hamburg's international reputation as a city of photography and photographers. To ensure the long-term preservation of his life's work and his extensive collection, he established the F.C. Gundlach Foundation in 2000.

"In my opinion, there is indeed a moral obligation for collectors to make parts or all of their collections public. I have decided to place my archive and collection in a foundation so that they will be continued in accordance with my wishes. That is, so that they remain a living organism and can respond to social changes, trends, and contingencies." -F.C. Gundlach

With the oeuvre of photographer F.C. Gundlach, his collection of photographic art and finally the image archives of other important photographers, the F.C. Gundlach Foundation thus has three extensive archives of photographic works and materials.

In 2003, F.C. Gundlach was appointed by the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg as the founding director of the House of Photography. This created an innovative platform for engaging with the medium of photography at the Deichtorhallen and made him the most important partner for the F.C. Gundlach Foundation. The F.C. Gundlach Collection not only found a permanent home here as a long-term loan, but is also regularly integrated into the House's projects.

Numerous exhibitions and publications in museums and institutions worldwide have since presented the holdings of the F.C. Gundlach Foundation to the public and raised their international profile. These include widely touring exhibitions such as Martin Munkacsi – Think while you shoot (2005–2012), as well as the rediscovery of an amateur photographer's glass negatives under the title Fish, Vegetables, Securities: Fide Struck photographs Hamburg 1930–1933, at the Altona Museum in 2020.

"This success story has only been possible thanks to our cooperation partners and a network of contacts in the international photography scene. Our heartfelt thanks go to all of them, to our audience, and of course to our founder, F.C. Gundlach!" said Sebastian Lux. "We look forward to presenting large and small exhibitions and photobooks from the F.C. Gundlach Foundation in museums and institutions around the world for the next 20 years. We will continue to make contemporary photography visible to the public and rediscover historical perspectives for a broad audience."

The F.C. Gundlach Foundation has also established itself as a point of contact for managing photographic archives. With the image archives of photographers such as Wilfried Bauer, F.C. Gundlach, Peter Keetman, and Toni Schneiders, as well as the anticipated archive of Walter Schels, the F.C. Gundlach Foundation already oversees significant works. Further archives are to be acquired in a targeted manner. An important partner in this endeavor is the German Photo Library Dresden, with which the Archive of Photographers was jointly founded in 2012. The F.C. Gundlach Foundation sees working with estates and life's work as a major task for its future.

Next year's program begins with a gallery exhibition of F.C. Gundlach's work at noirblanche in Düsseldorf. The exhibition "Photography in the Weimar Republic" will be on display at the International Cultural Centre in Krakow from April and at the Peter Behrens Building in Oberhausen from August. The retrospective " Look Here! Toni Schneider" will be shown at the Singen Art Museum from June, and the Schleswig City Museum will present the exhibition "A Day Off" with works from the F.C. Gundlach Collection starting in May.

Exhibitions Oeuvre F.C. Gundlach (selection)
Pose as body language – Moscow House of Photography 2001 et al.
Images create fashion – New Gallery of the Joanneum Graz 2004
F.C. Gundlach. The photographic work – House of Photography Hamburg 2008 et al.
500,000 miles – Around the world with F.C. Gundlach – Photobastei Zurich 2019

Exhibitions from the F.C. Gundlach Collection (selection)
Fashion - Body - Fashion , Museum of Arts and Crafts Hamburg 2001
A Clear Vision , House of Photography Hamburg 2004
Vanity , Kunsthalle Wien 2011, etc.

Exhibition curations (selection)
Martin Munkacsi - Think while you shoot , House of Photography Hamburg 2005 et al.
Esther's World. Photographs by Esther Haase , ABTART Stuttgart 2018
Photography in the Weimar Republic , LVR LandesMuseum Bonn 2019

Exhibitions Archives
Wilfried Bauer. Be Poetic , Der Spiegel 2015
Peter Keetman. Designed World , Museum Folkwang 2016 et al.
Photographer Leonore Mau – From Hamburg to the World , Jenisch House Hamburg 2016
Look here! Toni Schneiders , Kunstfoyer Munich 2020