The House of Photography located in the smaller hall of the ensemble Deichtorhallen was re-designed within a one-year period of construction work by the Hamburg based architect Jan Störmer funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg.
The architectural conception is based upon the ideas of Prof. F. C. Gundlach and is a substantial and sensitive development of the renovationof the former market hall by Josef P. Kleihues in 1989. After the construction of the Schürmann-Wing at the Museum of Arts and Crafts and the adaptation of Bucerius Artforum in Hamburg architect Jan Störmer has now set a third landmark in the Hamburg cultural landscape with the House of Photography.
The hall has received a new climate and light system, separate exhibition cabinets, a hightech auditory, an interactive educational lounge, a library, a storage space for the photographic collections as well as a bookshop and the new restaurant »Fillet of Soul«. The House of Photography thus fulfills the physical and conservatory conditions for a multidisciplinary vital and internationally working exhibition center.
Through the House of Photography at the Deichtorhallen the cultural landscape of Hamburg is enriched with another cultural institution which - thanks to the F.C. Gundlach Collection, built up in Hamburg over many years, to the photo archive of the magazine DER SPIEGEL and to a diverse exhibition program and associated events - has already gained a great deal of international attention. With the inauguration of the House of Photography two opening exhibitions commence.
With the show »Martin Munkácsi – Think While You shoot« this first big retrospective of the oeuvre will honor one of the most important photographers of the 20. century. The show is accompanied by a selection of works by contemporary artists from the F. C. Gundlach Collection.
Both shows took place within the context of the third Hamburg Triennial of Photography, which was inaugurated on April 14, 2005.
