The Red Couch - Garzweiler, 1998
Horst Wackerbarth

Horst Wackerbarth (born in 1950) is a photographer and video artist. He studied photography at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, and today lives and works in Düsseldorf. Over 50 solo exhibitions worldwide have been dedicated to his work, including a much-vaunted exhibition at the NRW-Forum in Düsseldorf in 2016. His nomination and acknowledgment by the World Press Photo Award, the most prestigious distinction in the world for photography, are a testament to Wackerbarth’s reputation. About the project “The Red Couch: a Gallery of Mankind” In 1979 Horst Wackerbarth first traveled through the USA with a red sofa and the aim of producing a subjective portrait of the country. By the early 1980s lots of exhibition centers around the world were already dedicating first exhibitions to this series. For four decades now Horst Wackerbarth has been traveling the world with his red couch, which he places in different people’s habitual environment and portrays them on it: Young and old, famous and unknown. The aim of the project is a portrait piece, a gallery of mankind. ► Read  the whole special focus here!