münchen (munich) minimal – the successful berlin minimal series now finds its long-planned continuation: Andreas Bromba has been photographing the Bavarian capital since September 2020. The goal is again: to see the familiar in a new way, to discover one’s own city as well as to overcome contrasts through the minimalist visual language – and of course the joy of art. berlin minimal was photographed with the sensational PolaGraph 35mm film – in other words, analogue. Unfortunately, Polaroid has taken this film, which is very popular with photographers, off the market. Andreas Bromba has therefore modernised its pictorial language and created his own – now digital – template that comes close to the original. In doing so, he deliberately refrained from imitating the coarse-grained and sometimes unpredictable PolaGraph film. In the foreword to the berlin minimal exhibition book, the then Berlin Senator for Culture, Prof. Christoph Stölzl, wrote: “I am certain that these pictures can give their viewers the most beautiful pleasure that art has in store for us: Surprise, amazement, recognition and smiles.” In …

Mystic Mayan land: Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula and the Caribbean Sea – turquoise, green and emerald. These are also the colours of Andreas Bromba’s new photo series. In it, the ancient stone buildings, pyramids and artefacts of the once important Mayan city of Chichén Itzá are also shown in many shades. There are about 30 motifs from September 2019, mostly from Chichén Itzá. In addition, there are further motifs from the Museum of Ethnology in Mexico City, a unique museum worldwide for the ancient peoples of Mesoamerica. Many well-known motifs have been impressing visitors from all over the world here for decades: the “sun wheel” of the Aztecs, creepy goddesses and gods (good models for horror films) or the Olmec heads weighing tons. Mexico is too big – you can’t see everything. The Museum of Ethnology is a good substitute. The museum’s outdoor areas are particularly well done: you think you’re standing in a (primeval) forest. Some motifs were created here, as if in the dense forest of Yucatan – and yet in the middle of …

New street and documentary photography from Mexico: A country full of motives and friendly people (and policemen who like to supplement their salary by paying for inexplicable “traffic offences”). Mexico City, Teotihuacan and the Yucatan Peninsula with Chichen Itza: Between picture book and slum – sometimes there is only a street corner in between.

Tilsit? Is not the cheese coming here? Yes, that’s right. At least originally. Today the cheese is produced elsewhere. Tilsit was the easternmost city in Germany, directly on the Memel. The people were self-confident citizens of Prussia with a great affection for Queen Louise – Prussia’s queen of hearts, as someone once wrote. It tried in the peace of Tilsit 1807 to wrest the French aggressor Napoleon good peace conditions for Prussia. Because of the clumsiness of her husband Friedrich Wilhelm III. not quite worked out, as historians claim. Anyway, it was worth a try. Many celebrities come from Tilsit: the romantic poet Max von Schenkendorf (“The Freedom I mean”) and the writer Johannes Bobrowski. The “captain of Köpenick” was initially more of the previously convicted shoemaker Wilhelm Voigt from Tilsit. Also from here comes the musician and actor Armin Müller-Stahl. The 1944er was probably a particularly good year: Two “hidden champions” of music are native Tilsiter: Joachim Fritz Krauledat and Edgar Froese.

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Western and modern, Russian and different, Prussian and old – that is Königsberg and Kaliningrad in one. After five years, Andreas Bromba was back in town, over 1,000 pictures are the result. Here is a selection!