Hans Georg Esch: View of Pompeii Exhibition

Pompeii is certainly one of the most photographed excavation sites in the world. But architectural photographer Hans Georg Esch believes that the millennia-old city is far from being “photographed out”. From September 5, 2024, his Pompeii exhibition with pictures from a bird’s eye view will therefore be on display at the Aedes Architecture Forum.

The millennia-old city of Pompeii is known as a Roman settlement with UNESCO World Heritage status. It was probably destroyed by the volcano Vesuvius in 79 AD and covered in at least six meters of ash. As a result, the city was very well preserved. It was not until the late 16th century that the ruins were discovered and from the 18th century onwards archaeologists ventured to excavate them. Since then, the excavation site has attracted many curious visitors, currently around 2.5 million people a year.

So you might think that Pompeii is already very well documented. But internationally renowned architectural photographer Hans Georg Esch has used the latest technology to capture exciting new images of the settlement, from above. Together with his team, he discovered new perspectives that can be seen at the Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin from September 5, 2024.

Hans Georg Esch is known for his iconic images, which primarily depict megacities. For over 30 years, he has been a contemporary witness to urban and landscape structures in cities. He shows the hidden potential of places with his architectural eye – as in Pompeii. The photos taken from the air show the connections and parallels between ancient urban planning and modern urban structures. The millennia-old city thus becomes tangible in a series of photographs. The images bear witness to the settlement that lies in ruins today. They give an idea of its former vibrancy and reveal a great deal of beauty. They also invite visitors to reflect on the history of Pompeii and the significance of this place for today’s urban development.

The HGEsch team is planning a whole series of exhibitions to share the architectural view of Pompeii. The Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin is the prelude with around 80 photographs from the series. From September, exhibitions will also be on show in Cologne: at the Italian Cultural Institute and, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Roman-Germanic Museum, at the Belgisches Haus. A public photo project is also planned for the fall in Cologne.

The photographs of Pompeii show the archaeological excavations that are now part of the metropolis of Naples. They are located directly at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. Using the latest digital photography techniques, HGEsch and his team captured the architecture of the city using drones. This photographic approach fits in with the new approach to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii: Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director of the site since 2021, also advocates the approach of conveying a comprehensive and lively image of the ancient city.

From the perspective of contemporary witnesses of the 21st century, the photo exhibition shows that Pompeii has many similarities to our urban living space today. The very well-preserved remains of the ancient Roman city are thus brought to life. A 22-minute animation of the photos is also part of the exhibition and makes the structure of the ruins even more tangible.

Anyone who has ever been to Pompeii knows that the remains are located in the municipal area of today’s city of Pompeii, which is directly adjacent to the excavations. Houses, stores, original alleyways and everyday objects such as amphorae, tools and pieces of jewelry show life in the city, which is now visible from above in the exhibition: “For me, Pompeii is a showplace,” says architectural photographer Hans Georg Esch. “I found it particularly appealing to capture the daily presence of distant history in our time.”

The photographs reveal the urban structure as well as the architecture of the Roman settlement. Visitors to the exhibition can thus learn a lot about the lives of people in ancient Pompeii. The photo series also invites visitors to reflect on comparable structures in today’s metropolises: it illustrates the vulnerability of human living space. Although places like Pompeii are separated from the modern city, they are still part of the metropolis and the surrounding landscape. Thanks to the photos, the holistic nature of man and nature, the topography of the region shaped by the volcano and the structure of the ruins also become clear.

“Pompeii – The Architectural View” is HGEsch’s third monographic exhibition at the Aedes Architecture Forum, following “City and Structure” (2008) and “House and Horizon – Transformations” (2021). Born in 1964, the photographer was awarded the Architecture Photography MasterPrize at the Guggenheim Museum in 2022 and 2023. In 2023, he was recognized as the best company for architectural photography and film worldwide at the Loop Design Award. He and his team are known for giving the built environment a scenic pictorial quality. The book “Hans Georg Esch – Der architektonische Blick I – POMPEJI”, which accompanies the exhibition series, will be published in September 2024.

The exhibition can also be admired at the Istituto Italiano Di Cultura Colonia (Italian Cultural Institute Cologne)! Universitätsstr. 81 | 50931 Cologne

By the way: Pompeii recently made headlines with completely different news about solar tiles.