Since 2014 the Berlinische Galerie has awarded a Thomas Friedrich Research Grant in Photography. In 2019 bursary holder Michael Kempf worked on Robert Petschow (1888 – 1945), whose often seemingly outlandish aerial views taken in the 1920s and 1930s are still held in great esteem by historians of the medium. Petschow, one of the best-known balloonists in the Weimar Republic, not only published his images in aviation journals, but also contributed them to celebrated exhibitions and publications devoted to New Vision photography.
Some thirty of his works will be shown in their own room within the permanent collection. Photographs from the holdings of the Berlinische Galerie will be complemented by loans from the LÜBECKER MUSEEN, Museum Behnhaus Drägerhaus.
The Thomas Friedrich Research Grant in Photography is sponsored by its founder, the designer, publisher, collector and photohistorian Manfred Heiting (The Heiting Library Trust). It offers researchers an opportunity to spend a year investigating a specific set of works in the Photography Collection.
In the context of the European Month of Photography