Local Desks
Analogue to news editors Agentur Schwimmer opens local branches, the Desks. These desks are usually temporary and the predominant method of production.
It may include participation of local photographers, being first-hand-reporters or citizens and|or physical desks in art context (participative installation, social sculpture, photo installation) and|or cooperation with local media and|or cooperation with local actors being NGOs or GOs.
The goal of the desks is to deliver fragments to construct an intense, open-minded portrait of a society into its depth. Artistic criteria of photography has a great variety, including elaborated photographical positions as well as the „honesty of concern“ (the report from inside the society: first-hand-reporters). A great variety of local partners and of linked artistic outreach (exhibition, workshop, printed matters) guarantee a variety of perspectives and approaches.
Desks in detail:
Douala|Cameroon (2017), Dhaka, Greece, Turkey, Lyon, Vienna, Heilbronn, Shanghai, Sofia, Haifa, Budapest, Sydney, Cairo (2011)
Participation
Agentur Schwimmer is a curated platform generally open to photographical series concerning the life of a society in a wider sense.
Pictures may be uploaded or sent to the editor. Each series on the website is published after consense of creator and editor.
Many series originate in cooperations during Local Desks. According to the skills of the contributors discussion of content may look like teaching and/or eye level dialogue.
The photographer is legally responsible for the publication of his/her pictures and choses the form of his/her copyright.
founded and edited by Sibylle Hofter and Sven Eggers,
currently run by Sibylle Hofter and Daniel Sellek
cms by turtleontour
2 interviews on the project and the Shanghai Desk
with the kind support of:
Senatsverwaltung für Kultur, Berlin
Goethe Institut Shanghai
AM artspace Shanghai
Volker Hüdepohl / turtleontour
Klaus Tröller / Paris
Katja Bechmann / english
Agentur Schwimmer is part of Büro Schwimmer.
Artistic Model of a Photo Press Agency
Agentur Schwimmer works as an artistic model. At its core it functions like a photo press agency that offers pictures taken at incidents, events and in places that are commonly considered newsworthy.
A photographic press agency is a public space which determines the ways the political is perceived. Agentur Schwimmer allows us to throw spotlights on this situation and reflect on it. News is what is accepted as such.
Künstlerisches Modell einer Pressefotoagentur
Die Agentur Schwimmer ist ein kuenstlerisches Modell. In ihrem Kern bietet sie fotografische Bilder an, die bei konventionell nachrichtenfähigen Ereignissen oder Vorgängen oder an solchen Orten aufgenommen sind.Eine Nachrichtenbildagentur ist ein öffentlicher Raum, in dem die Betrachtungsweisen des Politischen festgelegt werden. Mit der Bildagentur können wir die Situation nadelstichartig reflektieren. Die Agentur Schwimmer schafft eine Plattform für fotografische Perspektiven, die sich mit den Eingeweiden der Gesellschaft befassen. Ein Ort für visuelle Diskussion.
