FOR 3/7

MICHAEL SCHMIDT AT MITCHELL-INNES & NASH, CHELSEA MARCH 7

AK/CD #730596

NEW YORK CITY — Mitchell-Innes & Nash is presenting an exhibition of photographs by Michael Schmidt in its Chelsea gallery through April 12. This marks the first solo show in an American gallery for this important postwar German photographer and includes groupings of works from series such as “Waffenruhe (Ceasefire),”  “Ein-heit (U-ni-ty)” and “Frauen (Women),” as well as individual images from “Stadtbilder (Cityscapes)” and “Naturbilder (Landscapes).”

Schmidt’s images are concerned with the burden of history and the uncertainty of memory. In his photographs of urban architecture, he provides a formally balanced but menacing portrait of the modern metropolis. These flawless, faceless poured-concrete forms contrast with Schmidt’s stark images of German youth and middle age. Schmidt often appropriates images, rephotographing artwork, film stills and old newspaper photos. In his photo essays and exhibition he creates sequences and groupings of photographs that tell more in tandem than they ever could apart.

Schmidt was born in 1945 in East Berlin, but his family moved to the city’s west side before the Berlin Wall went up. Trained as a policeman, he taught himself photography an began taking photographs in 1965. In 1976, he founded the Werkstatt fur Photographie (Workshop for Photography) where he served as director from 1976 to 1978. Schmidt’s project “Waffenruhe” was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1988, and his work “Ein-heit” was exhibited there in 1996.

The Tate Modern in London and the Sprengel Museum in Hanover have also shown his photographs.

Schmidt lives and works in Berlin, where his work was featured in the 2006 Berlin Biennial.

Mitchell-Innes & Nash, Chelsea is at 534 West 26th Street. For more information, www.miandn.com or 212-744-7400.