From Empire to Marketplace. The rapid growth of the Federal Republic of Germany has often been attributed exclusively to the revival of its economy. Yet in the area of photography, the birth of Photokina in Cologne in attests to the emergence of a close link between industry and photographic practice during the period of reconstruction. After , a unified photography sector emerged in West Germany as a result of the concerted efforts of domestic firms and professional as well as amateur photographers.
From the product of the lab to the professional photographer, from the mass-produced camera to the amateur, and from the paper factory to the artist, the economic chain traces relationships of interdependence. Certain historical upheavals permit us to observe the alliances that constitute a photographic sphere. Initially, however, there was nothing to suggest that photography stood poised to regain its former status as one of the leading sectors of the German economy.
Factories had been bombed, and production sites were often separated between East and West. It bore witness to the end of the alliance between politics and industry under National Socialism and exemplified the birth of a new alliance between industry and culture.
How was this new model established? This far-reaching transformation was brought about by the unification of the hitherto scattered branches of the photography industry and involved an investment on the part of this economic sector in establishing a framework for promoting the medium. The inception of the trade fair Photokina in Cologne in , which brought together industrial products and photography exhibitions, attests to this close link between the photography industry and photographic practice.
But this phenomenon was by no means the consequence of any sort of determinism; rather, it was the result of the energetic efforts of individuals, among them Bruno Uhl, who was, at the time, the marketing director of Agfa. As a result, no integrated production capabilities remained. Thus, IG Farben IG for interessengemeinschaft , or syndicate , the world leader in the chemical industry, was dismantled.
