Wolfgang Zurborn: Crowds brings together photographic archives from the 1980s and 1990s for the first time. During the coronavirus lockdowns, Zurborn scanned hundreds of analogue colour negatives and developed the book and exhibition project Crowds. The period of reduced public activity allowed him to review this material with distance. The resulting images form a layered panorama of a society in transition, focused on the individual within social structures, collective dynamics, and media influence.
The photographs show people in groups at political rallies, sporting events, religious gatherings, tourist sites, and entertainment venues. Zurborn works in a street photography style, using colour to record clothing, gestures, and spatial relationships. His subjects do not disappear into an anonymous mass, but they are also not presented as isolated individuals. Instead, the images emphasise connections, affiliations, and tensions between people who share the same space for a limited time.
The book is published by Kehrer in a large format (19.8 x 28 cm) with an open binding, allowing detailed images to extend across double pages. The sequence does not follow a strict chronological or geographical order. Zurborn arranges the photographs rhythmically to highlight body language and group behaviour in environments marked by high levels of sensory stimulation. He aims to create visual structures that acknowledge the underlying chaos of these scenes without simplifying it.
Crowds returns to a period before digital photography and social media reshaped public gathering. The work documents how people organised themselves in physical space under different technological and cultural conditions. By focusing on group behaviour and individual posture, Zurborn examines the ongoing question of how much autonomy a person can maintain within collective situations. The project uses historical material to address themes that remain relevant in contemporary discussions about public life, identity, and self-determination.
Wolfgang Zurborn: Crowds
Category: Photographer Monographs & Art Books
Author: Wolfgang Zurborn
Publisher: Kehrer
Publication Date:
August 2026
Print Length: 272 pages
Language: English/German
Price: paid
paid
paid
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