The F.C. Gundlach Collection
"The Image of Man in Photography"
on permanent loan in the House of Photography

In his function as founding director of the House of Photography in the Deichtorhallen Hamburg, F.C. Gundlach made his private collection "The Image of Man in Photography" available to the house on permanent loan in 2003. Of the collection of around 9.000 works, 6.000 are housed in a climate-controlled depot in the House of Photography, while 3.000 works are stored in an equally climate-controlled external depot.

The image of man has been the subject of photographic work from the very beginning. In F.C. Gundlach's collection, special importance is attached to those photographic works which, beyond their historical status as contemporary documents, open up new perspectives on the dignity and vulnerability of the human being.

In a special way, photography bears witness to the changing view of the human being. One focus of the collection is therefore on photographs that show the image of man in his outward appearance – in fashions, poses, facial expressions and gestures. The broad definition of fashion as zeitgeist on which the collection is based also requires consideration of those photographs that are not to be interpreted as fashion photographs in the narrower sense, but which reflect contemporary witnesses.

Another focus within the collection is on images of people by visual artists working with photography, which accentuate the dialogical character of the medium.