In Berlin, an exhibition at the C/O Berlin cultural center questions our obsession with images

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Escaping the sweltering heat currently sweeping across France, yes, but where to go? Look no further. Head to Berlin and its somewhat milder climate (aside from a few days of extreme heat, we won’t lie to you).

To celebrate the summer season, the Museum of Photography and Visual Arts, C/O Berlin is presenting two decidedly modern, entertaining exhibitions that provoke thought about our era.

The first, 16° Fische, offers German artist Walter Schels a wonderful gift for his 90th birthday: a first retrospective of his seven decades of photography.

The second, The Lure of the Image, explores our relationship with images in the digital age. Over 2.1 trillion images were produced last year. But why? Why do we feel the need to document everything?

The exhibition features fourteen artists, with a majority being young and female, who blend sociology, semiotics, and the symbolism of images to question our relationship with them.

An exhibition full of surprises and warmth, perfect for kicking off the summer.

The retrospective of German photographer Walter Schels 16° Fische

Raw yet never brutal, realistic and poetic, Walter Schels’ work, who still operates from his Hamburg studio alongside his wife and artistic partner Beate Lakotta, is complex, evolving, and deeply poetic.

The journey begins in 1970s New York and concludes with documentary portraits focused on gender, featuring individuals who transitioned in the 2010s-2020s. With this profoundly touching series, the artist aimed to make visible the challenging process of becoming visible oneself.

Another series of portraits depicts blind individuals. While the photographs are intriguing, the perspective Walter has on his subjects is equally compelling. The experience was transformative for the artist, who recounts being surprised when the blind individuals he photographed asked to see the exhibition. He then invited the group to visit, describing their portraits to them.

The exhibition concludes with portraits of newborns, the Dalai Lama, as well as photographs of dried flowers and a series of animal portraits where the raw beauty and emotions of animals are captured without reservation.

Walter asserts that he will always prefer a photo that evokes fear over a boring photo, and his work, always seeking to understand the person he is about to photograph, confirms this.

The Lure Of The Image: why are we obsessed with images in the digital age?

How are our opinions influenced by images in our digital society, and what role do they play in shaping our social, cultural, and political viewpoints?

Such is the vast and very current topic of this project. Four of the fourteen artists were present to showcase their artistic works in the form of videos, collages, and photographs.

Art questions the issues of our time: why do we feel the need to document everything? What does our scrolling say about our era? The emergence of masculinism in the online sphere, or what our profiles on dating apps hide.

The subculture of the internet is brimming with deeply human inquiries that, aside from being markers of our time, are sociologically very telling.

A corner of the exhibition is dedicated to ASMR, a technique that creates specific, pleasant sensory stimuli. One artist compiled videos of colorful ASMR sponges. The overall effect is very pretty and pop to see, but the sounds, initially pleasant, gradually become too overwhelming and disturbing, much like the excess of content to which we have access.

The exhibitions will be on display until September 2, 2026, at C/O Berlin, Amerika Haus, Hardenbergstraße 22-24, 10623 Berlin.

image header: ©Dina Kelberman The Wave C/O Berlin Amerika Haus