Jörg Colberg

Jörg M. Colberg (born 15 February 1968)[1] is a German writer, educator and photographer,[2] living in Northampton, Massachusetts, USA.[3] He is the founder and editor of Conscientious, a blog dedicated to contemporary fine-art photography.[4][5] He worked as a research scientist in astronomy[6] and has been a professor of photography at the Hartford Art School.[7]

Life and work

Colberg studied physics and astronomy at the University of Bonn; he earned a Ph.D. in physics (theoretical cosmology) at the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics. He moved to the United States in 2000. After a short and unsatisfying experience in the computer programming industry. Colberg returned as a postdoc at the University of Pittsburgh.[8]

He discusses and dissects contemporary fine art photography on his blog, Conscientious, started in 2002.[4][9][10] In 2009, Source included Conscientious in its list of ten recommended photography blogs;[9] in 2010 Wired said that "Joerg Colberg is a pioneer in photography blogging, and his blog Conscientious maintains a tight editorial voice";[11] and in 2012 Sean O'Hagan included it among his few most recommended online photography websites and publications.[4]

In 2006, American Photo named Colberg one of their Photography Innovators.[12]

Colberg is the author of Understanding Photobooks: The Form and Content of the Photographic Book (2016), a guide to making photobooks. He has contributed essays to photography publications, including Foam Magazine,[13] British Journal of Photography,[14] and Creative Review.[15][16][17] He has written introductory essays for photography monographs,[18] guest-edited photography exhibitions and photobooks.

Along with Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann, he was a founder of the short-lived photobook publishing company Meier & Müller.[19]

From 2010, Colberg was a faculty member of the Hartford Art School.[7][20] As of 2021 he was living in Northampton, Massachusetts.[3]

In the photobook Vaterland (2020), Colberg reflects on the rise of anti-immigrant racism and xenophobia in Germany, "which he believes is not being taken seriously enough",[3] with right-wing ideology having become normalised.[21] It was described in the British Journal of Photography that Colberg achieves this through "an atmosphere of uneasiness. [. . .] There is little contrast between black and white. [. . .] Each picture frames a lingering uncertainty; something out of place. [. . .] The images work together to create a mood of angst." He made the images in Berlin, Hamburg and Warsaw.[3]

Publications

Publications by Colberg
  • Linking cluster formation to large scale structure. Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, 1997. OCLC 60144166.
  • Peculiar velocities of galaxy clusters. Munich: Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, 1998. OCLC 75873003.
  • At the Edge of the Known World (According to Google Street View). Self-published.[22]
  • Understanding Photobooks: the Form and Content of the Photographic Book. London: Focal, 2016. Hardback, ISBN 978-1138892712; paperback, ISBN 978-1138892699.
  • Photography's Neoliberal Realism. Discourse 4. London: Mack, 2020. ISBN 978-1-913620-16-5.[10]
  • Vaterland. Bielefeld, Germany: Kerber, 2020. ISBN 978-3-7356-0709-6. Text in English, German and Polish.[2][3]

Publications with contributions by Colberg
  • Image Makers, Image Takers: the essential guide to photography by those in the know. New York: Thames & Hudson, 2010. By Anne-Celine Jaeger. ISBN 9780500288924. Second expanded edition.
  • Conditions by Andrés Marroquín Winkelmann, Meier & Müller, 2010. Edition of 300 copies. Edited by Adam Barto. Co-published and with an introductory essay by Colberg.
  • Observed. London: Ivorypress, 2013. ISBN 978-8494053559. Sixth volume of C Photo. Guest edited by Colberg.[23]
  • 2013 project. Caf́é Royal, 2013. ISBN 978-0957586703. Includes texts by Colberg, Craig Atkinson, Sarah Bodman and Lawrence Zeegen.
  • Ostkreuz 25 Jahre. Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2015. Edited by "Ostkreuz" (photo agency). ISBN 978-3-7757-4062-3. With a foreword by Wolfgang Kil and essays by Colberg and Laura Benz. Text in German, English and French.
  • Tim Richmond: Last Best Hiding Place. Heidelberg: Kehrer, 2015. Edited by Tim Richmond and Lee C. Wallick. ISBN 9783868286038. With an essay by Colberg.

Awards
  • 2011: Life.com picked Conscientious for its Photo Blog Awards.[24]

References
  1. Biography page, University of Pittsburgh; archived by the Wayback Machine on 3 August 2004. Accessed 6 January 2015.
  2. Dickerman, Kenneth (15 March 2021). "In Sight: Perspective: This book was born from the photographer's unease with the far right's influence in Germany". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-03-15.
  3. "As the radical far-right in Germany gathers support, Jörg Colberg warns of the danger it poses". British Journal of Photography. Retrieved 2021-03-14.
  4. O'Hagan, Sean (16 November 2012). "The best photography websites, publications and galleries". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 July 2016.
  5. "Joerg Colberg: Founder and Editor, Conscientious". Prix Pictet. 14 June 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  6. "Postdocs and visitors", Department of Physics, Carnegie Mellon University. As archived by the Wayback Machine on February 12, 2006.
  7. "Jörg Colberg". Hartford Art School. Archived from the original on 2019-04-22. As archived by the Wayback Machine on April 22, 2019.
  8. See for example the note specifying academic affiliation attached to his name as coauthor of "Simulations of the formation, evolution and clustering of galaxies and quasars", Nature 435 (2005), pp. 629–636.
  9. "10 Photography-Related Blogs You Should Read". Source (photography magazine). 2009. Retrieved 4 July 2015.
  10. "Do Blue-Chip Photographers Prop up Global Capitalism?". Aperture. 29 March 2021. Retrieved 2021-04-11.
  11. Brook, Pete (11 October 2010). "Get to Know Our Favorite Photobloggers". Wired. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  12. "Photography Innovators of 2006", American Photo, popphoto.com, 16 December 2008 [sic]. Accessed 6 January 2015.
  13. "Issue #23 / City Life / Reinier Gerritsen". Foam Magazine. Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam. Archived from the original on January 6, 2012. Retrieved 1 January 2015.
  14. Colberg, Jörg (2012). "Better by Design". British Journal of Photography. Incisive Financial Publishing Limited. 159 (7797): 62–67. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24.
  15. "Crit: What we ask from a photograph", Creative Review. Accessed 1 January 2015.
  16. "Crit: Brodovitch at the ballet", Creative Review. Accessed 1 January 2015.
  17. "Crit: (Top) secret America: Hidden in plain sight", Creative Review. Accessed 1 January 2015.
  18. Tim Richmond: Last Best Hiding Place, ISBN 9783868286038; Hellen van Meene: Tout va disparaître, ISBN 9789055449323; etc.
  19. "Meier & Müller About Page", Accessed 1 January 2015.
  20. "Biographies: Jörg Colberg"; p. 78 within "Exhibition talks/panels", European Month of Photography, 2016. Available "here at silo.tips. Accessed 12 September 2020.
  21. Feuerhelm, Brad (30 January 2021). "Jörg Colberg Vaterland As Then, Now". American Suburb X. Retrieved 2021-01-30.
  22. At the Edge of the Known World. Blurb, Inc. 22 March 2014. Retrieved 7 July 2016.
  23. Observed : = Observados. WorldCat. OCLC 927603042.
  24. "Life.com's 2011 Photo Blog Awards". Life.com. Life. Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 4 July 2016. The citation reads:
    Perhaps it's the earnest—and rather cryptic—name. Maybe it's the formal, intense headshot of the blog's creator, Joerg Colberg, that suggests a seriously intellectual undertaking. And indeed, Conscientious is seriously intellectual; luckily, though, Colberg's is a refreshing, bracing intellect, one fueled by a genuine curiosity about—and love of—photography. This is one of the longest-running photo blogs out there, and since its founding in 2002 has offered countless profiles of photographers and their work: Aaron Ruell's marvelous environmental portraits and Alex te Napel's moving and unsettling "Faces of Alzheimer's" portraits, to name just two. And the blog is packed: Readers will also find in-depth interviews, news and commentary on exhibitions, and book reviews, as well as Colberg's rigorous and wide-ranging musings on matters large (one post: "What makes great photography?") and small. There's not an ounce of fluff here, which is why Conscientious is rightly seen and lauded as one of the very few essential photography destinations on the Web.
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