Stefan Moses (1928–2018) was one of the major photographers of the Federal Republic. At the beginning of the 1960s, his photos of members of various vocations – always shot outdoors before a grey sheet of cloth – made him one of the most famous portrait photographers in Germany.

Less well-known, however, is his early work: photoreportages for which Moses had travelled through Germany, Europe and overseas from 1950 on. In 1960 Moses began working for the leading German illustrated weekly, “stern”, which hired Germany‘s top photographers for their extensive photoreportages. The magazine sent him to report on Israel, Great Britain and Chile, among other places. Time and again he employed his innate sociological understanding and unmistakable photo - graphic style for reports on the “exotic” land of Germany – a country that was trying to reinvent itself through reconstruction and an economic miracle after the period of terror and war.

“Germany and the Germans” remained Stefan Moses’s pre-eminent topic until the end of his life: “For me Germany is just as exotic as Afghanistan or Paraguay, full of uncharted territories”, he later stated by way of explanation for his decadeslong photographic explorations. The exhibition traces the course of his career and presents not only his early photographic reportages and picture essays, but also examples of his famous portrait series.