Hardly any other photographer knows the world as well as he does: Harald Schmitt was a permanent photo reporter for 35 years star. During this time he traveled to 140 countries. He got some iconic photos like Jassir Arafat’s finger stretched in the sky for the victory sign in 1974 in Beirut or Erich Honecker, who slipped a goodbye to his state guest Helmut Schmidt in Güstrow in 1981. He won the World Press Photo Award, the most important award for photo reporters, six times.
After his retirement in 2011, Harald Schmitt remained curious and traveled the world. Since then, there is one region that has particularly impressed him: the Balkans. The photographer, who lives in Hamburg, traveled five times with his wife Annette to Southeastern Europe between 2015 and 2019 and discovered a world that was largely unknown to him until then. Schmitt is now sharing the experiences he made on these trips in the exhibition “Facing the Balkans”, which can be seen from November 11th in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
Harald Schmitt traveled to the Balkans several times
The resulting images paint a diverse picture of a culturally rich region: you can see the head of an Islamic dervish order in Albania, the haymaking in Romanian Transylvania or the everyday life of refugees on the Balkan route. A total of 100 photographs in seven sections are intended to give an insight into life in the Balkans.
Classifying texts and graphics provide background information about a region that is so close and about which we know so little. “It’s time to change that,” says Harald Schmitt. This exhibition is the perfect opportunity to do so.
Harald Schmitt: “Facing the Balkans”, November 11, 2021 to March 4, 2022, Fürstensaal and magnificent staircase of the Bavarian State Library