Dresden in 7,500 images: A unique photo project reveals the city!

Dresden in 7,500 images: A unique photo project reveals the city!

A fascinating project in Dresden is taking shape: the city archives have commissioned the architectural photographer Albrecht Voss to capture the entire city in 7,500 images. The ambitious project began in 2020 as part of a Europe-wide call for proposals and represents a Germany-wide pilot project. Over 23 months, Voss, who spent around 100 days in the streets of Dresden, documented the city with its impressive area of ​​325 square kilometers. He combined architectural photography with street photography and took photos not only of striking buildings, but also of everyday life in the city. Photoscala reports that the images are anonymized in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and made available to the public free of charge. The images also found their place on platforms such as Wikipedia.

What is behind this extensive documentation project? Voss worked mostly alone, but received support from interns and employees who helped him mark obligatory objects and anonymize the recordings. He did this with a Canon R5 and a TS-E 24 mm tilt-shift lens as well as a view camera from Arca-Swiss. Voss had extensive creative freedom: only 10% of the shots were mandatory subjects, which allowed him great freedom in choosing the subjects.

Insight into the past

But that is not the only important development in Dresden's architecture and photography scene: the DenkRaum Sophienkirche memorial was inaugurated in October 2020. This could hardly need a better staging. The church, which suffered significant damage from air raids in 1945 and finally partially collapsed a year later, is now viewed in a new light. Special emphasis was also placed on photography. The photographs taken for this memorial were carefully planned to eliminate unwanted elements such as dumpsters and vehicles from the frame. The lighting conditions also played an important role. The entire planning included coordination with various companies in order to optimally design the recordings and ensure easy access to the locations. Ken Wagner highlights that a team of architects led by Siegmar Lungwitz, Michael Athenstaedt and Professor Gerhard Glaser accompanied the project.

The photographs were taken over three days at different times of the day, using both large-format analog cameras and digital technologies to document Dresden's eventful history and architectural progress. The photographer, a Dresden native, sees these works as a worthy end to an important chapter. The memorial itself preserves parts of the old church ruins and at the same time reflects modern architecture, with the guiding principle: “Creating something new from something old”. This is also reflected in the decision-making process regarding the admission process, which represents a symbiosis of old and modern technology.

Public accessibility and impact

The results of the photographic work can not only be seen at exhibitions in Dresden, but are also available to interested parties via the city archives. The photos are available in JPEG format and have a size of 2500 x 1667 pixels. Higher resolutions can be obtained upon request. The image rights belong to the city archives, and the photos are available under a Creative Commons license, which allows reproduction and modification as long as the source is correctly cited. Dresden.de provides information about the accessibility of these special documents.

Voss plans to share his knowledge and expertise through photography workshops at a bed and breakfast in southern Spain, which represents an interesting future-oriented twist on his artistic practice. The core goal of the project remains to make the past visible and tangible in its interaction with the present.