Karin Rehn-Kaufmann

Karin Rehn-Kaufmann is Art Director and Chief Representative of Leica Galleries International. She has curated numerous exhibitions for Leica’s gallery spaces around the world and has served on the jury of the Leica Oskar Barnack Awards since 2008.

HM: Why is photography special to you?

KK: I still believe that photography, even just one image, can change people’s views on a problem, and we’ve learned this from the past. I very often give the example of the burning napalm child by Nick Ut as this image really changed the view on the Vietnam War. I also think it’s really interesting to meet all the fascinating people behind the camera, who use their soul and their heart and their eyes to see the world uniquely. What they are doing, they are doing not only for themselves but for the whole world.

The interesting fact about cameras is that you can buy a watch and read the time, you can buy a car and drive from one space to another, but with a camera you need a person behind it to produce a picture. A camera is always related to the person who uses it. It’s a creative and individual process.

HM: You will have 30 Leica Galleries worldwide next year. Can you tell us about your vision for them?

KK: We will have a world record with 30 galleries under one name in 2025. This is very special and unique. With these galleries we give photographers from all over the world a platform to show their work and tell their moving stories. This is more important than ever for photographers today.

Each of us has our own personal photo archive always accessible in ourselves and in our brains. We hope to build up the personal archive of each visitor to our galleries, who will be able to look at exhibitions rather than looking at their computer screens. That’s one of the main reasons for creating 30 galleries around the world in 2024. We’ll have a world record with 30 galleries under one name.

A picture is only really a picture when it’s printed. All the rest is data where everything can be changed within an image. However, when it's printed out and on the wall, it's a fact and can’t be changed anymore. I think that’s very important nowadays. To really have good photography, to have reportage photography and not fake photography, is so important. Also to have all the personal context from the photographers that are taking the images, so that we know their background and can trust that they won’t change an image or make fake news. This is a great hope for me as well.

We have a wonderful Leica Gallery Manager community who all meet and we exchange ideas. The managers look for the icons of tomorrow, and they look for classic and well known photographers from their own country as well as classic important photographers worldwide. They also show the winners and finalists from the Oskar Barnack Award.

HM: What would your advice be to documentary photographers trying to navigate the constant changes in the medium today?

KK: Have respect for human dignity would be my first advice. Never lose the human view on situations. My second piece of advice is try to go your own way and find your own expression. It's not so easy today but very important. Thirdly, focus on what you are going to photograph. Don’t go somewhere and just shoot. Shoot less and think more.

HM: As an advocate for honest storytelling and reportage, could you share your opinion on the use of fake news today and the use of artificial intelligence in photography?

KK: I think that some photographers of course use AI as a tool, but for me this has nothing to do with photography. It may be more useful as a tool for making art. For me, photography needs a camera and someone behind it, as I mentioned in the beginning. If you are a reportage photographer, you stay with the truth because you know that is your responsibility.

It will also be up to us to decide by asking photographers to sign contracts that they are not using AI in their work. The problem that I worry about more is, how will photographers be able to fund and finance their documentary projects in the future?

HM: Are there any particular images in the huge Leica archive that have made the strongest impression on you?

KK: We don’t have four hours to discuss it and I have so many images! I adore the old photographers who really knew how to shoot. Nowadays photographers may shoot 100 shots to get their one image but the older photographers waited a day or many hours to capture the “decisive” moment.

Leica Oskar Barnack Award exhibit showing Ismail Ferdous’ work on display at the Ernst Leitz Museum.

HM: What makes an Oskar Barnack winner? Particularly this year’s winners?

KK: It wasn’t easy to choose! This year we had two series that were totally contrary, because we had the horror of the dead bodies in Ukraine, and we had beach images from Bangladesh.

Every year we always have the topic of man in relation to their environment. Each submission must tell a story in 20 to 25 images. This in itself is already really demanding. It’s not 10, it’s not 15. It’s 20 to 25.

As a jury member, you can see who has been really consistent in their editing process, which is the first step. This year’s winner, Ismail Ferdous, documents a beach in Bangladesh that everyone from all walks of life visits for relaxation. Even Ismail himself in the past would go here every year with his family. But just near this beach is the largest refugee camp in the world. It very much fits the topic of man and his environment. We don’t want to always see war and darkness, as we have that every morning when we open a newspaper. We don’t want to see only the daily news but reportage from topics which are sometimes not at all in our view.

HM: You’ve had so many curatorial projects over the years. Is there one you are especially proud of?

KK: I am never proud of myself! But taking the example of Ismail, when I was considering how to exhibit the series, I saw that there was always a horizontal line in the back of the photographs, and I said to myself that I had to use it. I decided to paint the lower wall in a beach color and above the horizontal line in blue. The whole exhibition was activated by that horizontal line. I really love to work with colors on the walls.

Another was a series from Georgia by Natela Grigalashvili. It was like a fairytale taken in the last century with people still living in that way. So I had to consider, how can I reflect this in the curation? I used a huge wallpaper of an image with an enormous rainbow and a boy underneath it and then decided to hang the other images in front of this and float them so they were moving slightly. I always try to find new ways of exhibiting because just having one image after another is annoying.

Natela Grigalashvili's series The Final Days of Georgian Nomads was shortlisted for LOBA 2023.

I have often had the feeling when walking into some exhibitions that my God, I don’t understand anything here. It's experimental or very psychological and requires that I read lots of text to understand it. This isn’t, for me, I want to look at the photographs and understand immediately what is going on. I sometimes ask myself if I am too old to understand it, but when I speak to many younger photographers, they tell me they feel the same way.

I think the photography world is often too driven by business. If a gallerist or an actress endorses an artist and tells us they’re important, the work suddenly doubles in value. For me that’s not about art, it’s more about business. We sell prints in our galleries but always work 50/50 with the artists.

HM: Any other key advice you’d give to photographers applying for grants?

KK: I think there are only a few photographers that are able to see their work through another person's eyes. It’s crucial to have another person, even a wife or a friend, who can help look at the work with a different eye and help with the editing process to tell the strongest story through the photographs.