Special exhibition "Moments of light and shadow - the animal photographer Rudolf Zimmermann"
Museum für Naturkunde: Exhibition opening on 5 July, 5 p.m. - Advance viewing for media representatives possible from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
On Wednesday 5 July at 5 pm, interested parties are invited to the opening of the special exhibition "Moments of light and shadow - the animal photographer Rudolf Zimmermann" at the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz in the TIETZ. The exhibition is being presented jointly with the Deutsche Fotothek and the Association of Saxon Ornithologists, supported by Rochlitz Castle and private collectors.
Media representatives will have the opportunity to get a first impression of the exhibition from 1 to 3 pm. They are also cordially invited to the opening at 5 pm.
The former Saxon State Minister for Culture, Prof Karl Mannsfeld, is expected to speak at the opening of the exhibition. Marc Rohrmüller from the Deutsche Fotothek will provide an expert introduction to the photographic work of Rudolf Zimmermann. The event will be accompanied musically by flautist Sabine Petri from the Municipal Music School.
The exhibition, which will be on display from 6 July to 15 October 2023, features a collection of animal and travel photographs by naturalist Rudolf Zimmermann, including parts of Zimmermann's bird egg collection, publications and original photographic equipment. The naturalist, who came from Chemnitz, devoted his career to zoology and researched native small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds. Rudolf Zimmermann's pictures were used in his own publications as well as in calendars, specialised books and textbooks.
About the exhibition
Two stag beetles in battle, a black-headed gull in flight, a dormouse with its young lined up on a branch - the impressions from the lives of wild animals look like snapshots of celebrities caught by today's paparazzi. Yet the black and white photographs, some of which are a hundred years old, are the result of careful studies to which the naturalist Rudolf Zimmermann (1878-1943) dedicated his life. Even as a schoolboy, Rudolf, who came from Rochlitzer Berg, tried his hand at scientific writing and, together with his siblings, prepared hand-written illustrated booklets on the lives of various forest animals. However, his first printed publication, which was self-published by the author in Chemnitz in 1901, was entitled "Sagen und Mären aus dem Thale der Zwickauer Mulde zwischen Penig und Rochlitz". Other early publications covered a range of topics from mineralogy and fungi to local dialect poetry and contemporary women's clothing. However, Zimmermann increasingly turned to zoology - as an autodidact - and focussed on native small mammals, amphibians, reptiles and birds. In 1922, he was the inspiration behind the founding of the Association of Saxon Ornithologists, acting as its editor and organiser of the biannual conferences until the end of his life.
Rudolf Zimmermann made a name for himself as a wildlife photographer after 1905. Throughout his life, he used a plate camera that exposed glass negatives in medium format; with this seemingly unwieldy technique, the patient observer took excellent snapshots, the aesthetic quality of which earned him international acclaim between the two world wars. In addition to his own publications, Zimmermann's pictures also illustrated calendars, reference books and textbooks, and were reproduced as slide sets for school lessons. The Landesbildstelle, the predecessor of the Deutsche Fotothek, was founded in 1924 and took over 3,500 negatives from Zimmermann's estate.