blog 24

Kai-Olaf Hesse

(no website)

Kai-Olaf Hesse (b. 1966) has
lived as a freelance photographer and book designer in Braunschweig since 2006.

Completed photographic apprenticeships in Hamburg, including freelance work for daily newspapers, news supplements, sport picture and picture agencies. Worked as a photo assistant before studying Communication Design
at the University of GHS Essen; subsequently received a Diploma at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst HGB in Leipzig with Professor
Joachim Brohm. Worked at the Bauhaus, Dessau before spending several years abroad. Worked from 1998 to 2006 in Berlin. Has had numerous international exhibitions and publications and held various teaching positions. He is a member of the German Photographic Academy (DFA).
His most recent book, 'Topograpy of the Titantic' (2007) has been published by ex pose verlag and Belfast Exposed Photography.
Kai-Olaf Hesse heads the seminar The Built Environment and Documentary Strategies.

Projects (selected)

Through the means of an art-documentary visual language, the work engages within the area of ‘social-historical landscape photography’.
City and topographical sited projects put an emphasis on questions, where the conceptualisations are visually represented by means of referential metaphors. These are often presented alongside the artefactual, including text modules and/or historical pictorial material and represented in book as well as exhibition formats.

2007 Twentysix Gasoline Stations (revisited)
since 2005 SeeStücke – Mare Balticum (work in progress)
2005 1945 – Letzte Schlachtfelder (work in progress)
2004 Periphery or What?, Ostrava, Czech Republik
2002/03 Topography of the Titanic, Belfast
2001 67/89 : Ortsbesichtigungen
2000–06 Depot_Bilder
1998–06 Bilder_in_Berlin
1995–98 65/66 – 24 views
1995–98 AfterImages from America
1995 An American Space: The National Mall (with E. McNeil)
1995 Dawn to Dusk Walk (with E. McNeil)
1994 Landing Zones: Social Landscapes of D–Day
(with T. Krüger und E. McNeil)
1992–95 Bauhaus Dessau – Industrielles Gartenreich
(with A. Boesten)
1992 Braer-oilspill , Shetland-Isles (with A. Boesten)

Publications (selected)

2006 Topography of the Titanic, ex pose verlag, Berlin;
Belfast Exposed Photography
2004 Within and Beyond the Wall, Toronto, Canada
2003/04 photosynkyria 2003 and 2004, Thessaloniki
2003 67/89, edition365, ex pose Verlag, Berlin
2000 65/66, edition365, ex pose Verlag, Berlin
2000 Berlin on the Move, Goethe Institut Singapore
2000 Die Welt als Ganzes, ifa/Hatje Cantz
1999 The Imperfect West
International Biennal Exhibition of Photography Torino
1998 photoFest 98, Houston
1997 Contemporary German Photography, Taschen
1996 Kunstpreis des Landkreis Gifhorn
1996 Bauhaus Dessau – Industrielles Gartenreich,
ex pose Verlag, Berlin (with A. Boesten)
1990 Polaroid Award Final Art

Collections

Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (ifa), Stuttgart/Berlin
Stiftung Bauhaus Dessau
Photographische Sammlung der Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin
Private Collections

Exhibitions in (selected)

Berlin, Dresden, Ostrava, Cobh, Toronto, Thessaloniki, Athens, Prague, Singapore, Manila, Seoul, Torino, Houston, Leipzig, Munich, Cologne, Krefeld, Dortmund, Herten, Bowling Green, Dessau, Essen, Braunschweig