Asia City Strangers

It is not an accident that the Asian regions, especially China, are referred to as the "New Frontier." Within a 10 year span large swaths of land morphed from agrarian landscapes into a complex and industrial sprawl. Asia City Strangers, curated by noted German photographer Joachim Brohm, combines five very different photo based artists. Over a 10 year period, 1996-2006, they created diverse bodies of work exploring this rapidly changing landscape. The artists featured are Andreas Böhmig, Nicola Meitzner, Elisabeth Neuduörfl, Valentina Seidel and Heidi Specker, all students from the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts in Germany. Miriam Paeslack's compelling essay, Creating a Third Space, looks at the contemporary photographers outsider view of the Asian city. This challenging project immediately makes one think of past urban documents made by New Topographic greats such as Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, and Joachim Brohm, who themselves spent years exploring a drastically changing environment.