Berlin Cityscapes, 1982
Portraits, 1987 – 1994
Architecture, 1989 – 1991
Tight framing, typically shallow depth of focus and the choice of what appeared at that time to be unusually large picture formats are characteristic of the works after Waffenruhe. Here Michael Schmidt turned his attention to architecture and the portrait in a manner that no longer insisted on making connections visible or on the wish for transparency. The photographic method allows motifs to become detached from their concrete urban or personal context and to become symbolic emblems of metropolitan life, history and society. Architektur (Architecture) and Portraits are characterised by the presence and materiality of their objects and the immediacy of encounter.