Two Pairs of Eyes. Photographs by Donata and Wim Wenders

The exhibition at the Ernst Leitz Museum in Wetzlar presents a curated dialogue between the photographic works of Donata and Wim Wenders. Their ways of looking at the world are very different. This joint presentation opens up new perspectives on photography, perception and storytelling. 

The exhibition features numerous well-known and frequently-considered-iconic motifs, as well as more recent works from the past few years. An interview produced especially for the exhibition offers further insight into the working methods and creative mindsets of the artist couple. 

Wim Wenders is among the most internationally-renowned German directors. His films have made cinematic history and have received multiple awards. Locations always play a central role in his work: “Paris, Texas” (1984), “Der Himmel über Berlin” (Wings of Desire, 1987), “Buena Vista Social Club” (1999) and “Perfect Days” (2023). At the same time, he has created a unique body of photographic work. Wenders describes himself as a “traveller, then director or photographer”. Many of his pictures were taken during trips or at film locations. They often show landscapes and architecture, using a clear and colourful visual language, and revealing surprising and touching details. His motifs are mostly devoid of people, yet the traces they contain speak of life and of being.  

Donata Wenders’ photographs reveal a very different way of looking at the world. She works predominantly in black and white and often with a focus on people. Her images thrive on a minimalist visual language made up of light and shadow, sharpness and dynamic gestures. Prominent contemporary figures, such as Pina Bausch or Paul Auster, are frequently found in her motifs, as well as others who are transformed into enchanting shadow beings through the use of abstraction and blurriness. For her photographic installations, she works with experimental techniques such as cross-fading, double exposures and long exposures.   

Both perspectives share a loving view of the world and an interest in images that go beyond the purely documentary. This interplay reveals two diverse photographic approaches that overlap yet stand apart from one another – between a cinematic way of seeing and photographic condensation, between expansiveness and intimacy, between clarity and dissolution.

Donata Wenders was born in Berlin in 1965. From 1984 to 1989, she studied film and theatre in Berlin and Stuttgart. She then worked for many years as a camera assistant, and also as Director of Photography on feature films and documentaries. She has been dedicated to photography since 1995. Her pictures have appeared in a variety of international newspapers and magazines. She has published numerous photo books, often together with Wim Wenders, whom she married in 1993. Her work has been exhibited at home and abroad. She is a member of the board of the Wim Wenders Foundation in Düsseldorf. 

Wim Wenders was born in Düsseldorf in 1945. After studying medicine, philosophy and sociology for a couple of semesters, he turned to his passion for film – first in Paris and then, as of 1976, in Munich. There he was accepted into the first year enrolment of the newly founded University of Television and Film. As an auteur filmmaker, he was a key figure in the New German Cinema movement of the seventies. He has long been considered one of the most important representative of contemporary world cinema. In addition to his film work, photography has played a constant and influential role in his life since childhood. The starting point for his independent photographic work was the series “Written in the West”, which was produced in the American West whilst he was preparing to film “Paris, Texas”.  

His body of work as a scriptwriter, director, producer, photographer and book author encompasses award-winning feature and documentary films, photography exhibitions around the world, and numerous photo books, film books and collections of texts. Beginning in the late seventies, he spent many years in the USA. The multi-award-winning artist now lives and works with his wife in Berlin. 

Montag bis Sonntag von 10 bis 18 Uhr