Marathon People (1996-2010)

Gosbert Gottmann’s photography is understood as a critical discourse regarding questions about all sorts of trends and fashions which determine our lives more and more, but we are not aware of the long-term consequences of many of those developments.

Gottmann takes pictures of Marathon People without interest in the race, as paradoxical as it may sound. He sees right through the event, creating a transcendental piece of sport for the masses, discovering something else behind it, that has possibly little to do with healthy exercise, but more with social, cultural or even political questions, according to the understanding that photography can do more than simply duplicate the reality around us.

Gosbert Gottmann consistently renounces any specific captions. No location, no date, no name. Frankfurt am Main may have been the site of recording, but that´s not important. All that matters is: marathon is everywhere.

(Excerpt from introduction by Hans-Michael Koetzle, Gosbert Gottmann Marathon People, Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg, 2010)

GOSBERT GOTTMANN
born in 1955 in Ottenhöfen, Black Forrest (Germany), lives in Frankfurt/Main (Germany)
www.lagalerie.de

Gosbert Gottmann has degrees from the University of Mannheim, where he majored in political science and economics. As a self-taught photographer, he has been photographing for over 25 years. Since the early 1990s, Gosbert Gottmann’s photographs have been published in magazines such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Sonntagszeitung, Art das Kunstmagazin, Photonews and in the LeadAwards Jahrbuch Visual Leader. His work is regularly exhibited in museums, galleries and at international events such as Fotografie Forum Frankfurt, Ikonenmuseum (Frankfurt), L.A. Galerie (Frankfurt), Photo Espana 04 Museo colecciones ICO, (Madrid), Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago de Compostela) and Bit map (Seoul). Various private and public collections, such as the DZ BANK Collection, have acquired his photographs. Some of his books, including Marathon People (2010) and Warriors (2004), were published by Kehrer Verlag, Heidelberg.