WORK & VITA

Born in 1971, freelance photographer and visual artist in Düsseldorf with a focus on social documentary photography and photographic documentation and reportage in difficult-to-access environments. On the artistic side, the focus of his work lies in the stylisation and poeticisation of seemingly banal everyday scenes with the aid of the medium of photography.

• Registered in the artist directory
  of the state capital Düsseldorf
• Member of the German Media Association
• Member of the Professional Association
  of Visual Artists

Exhibitions & Projects (excerpt)

2024

» Scrap

Group exhibition with Hanne Horn,
Birgit Martin, Alexander von Goch
Film & Photography
17. 5. – 16.6.2024
Galerie Judith Dielämmer
Grevenbroich

» Focus on the essentials

Group exhibition with Eckhart Christensen, Günter Claus, Hanne Horn, Thomas Klingberg, Renate Scherra
Black-White-Photography
11. 1. – 21.1.2024
BBK Kunstforum

2023

» Encounters

Group exhibition
Düsseldorf, ROSS 31
07. 10. – 14 10. 2023
Roßstrasse 31, Düsseldorf

» Parallel

Group exhibition
Kunstverein Duisburg
6. 10. – 22. 10. 2023
Eröffnung: 6. 10. 2023 / 11:30 a.m.
Weidenweg 10, Duisburg

» Gelsenkirchen beyond football

Single exhibition; Book presentation and exhibition
Gelsenkirchen, City Library (Horst)
21.09. 2023 – 30. 11.2023
Opening: 21. 09. 2023 / 7:00 pm.

» PLASTIC DREAMS

Group exhibition of BBK Düsseldorf
23.03.2023 – 02.04.2023
Düsseldorf, BBK Kunstforum

2022

» Year-end exhibition of the BBK Düsseldorf

Winterkunst
01.12.2022 – 18.12.2022
Düsseldorf

» NRW State Art Exhibition

Dortmunder U, Level 6
10.11.2022 – 08.01.2023
Dortmund

» Violences

Group exhibition with Bettina Guckler,
Claudia Grunst, Daniel Breininger
Vernissage 29.10.2022
Gallery Smend
Cologne

2021

Breaks and new beginnings

Publication of the book
(ISBN: 9783754135365)

2020

» Gelsenkirchen beyond football

Publication of the photo book
(ISBN 9783749465491)

2019

» Breaks and new beginnings

Documentary exhibition in
Photos and texts
Düsseldorf

» Everyone is a Photographer

Employees of a textile upcycling company describe their working world photographically in a photo workshop. Düsseldorf

2018

» Urban Dreams

Joint exhibition with the artist
Jaqueline Lobodda. Photographs, collages,
Objects, texts. Gelsenkirchen

» MOSCOW STUDY

Exhibition in the context of the
Photo Festivals DÜSSELDORF PHOTO

» MOSCOW STUDY

Scholarship of the Mulimedia Art Museum
Moscow and the city of Düsseldorf

2017

» Between tracks

Poetry & everyday life on the “Red Island”
(a so called district in Berlin)
text & photography, Berlin Schöneberg

2016

» Looking back to the future

Joint exhibition with the
Photographer Ulrike Fox,
Gelsenkirchen

» FORESTRY

Contemporary social documentary photography.
Exhibition of the photographic documentation in the
Framework of the Kunstpunkte Düsseldorf (solo exhibition)

» Charity Exhibition

for the Jasmin-Hilfe e.V.
in Düsseldorf (group exhibition)

2015

» Words/images/dialogues

Urban poetry of the everyday.
Fragmented exhibition in public space, Düsseldorf & Berlin

» Linguistic images / imagery

Berlin city views. Text trifft Fotografie, Berlin (joint exhibition). Poetic answers to social documentary photographs

2014

» Be as you feel

An artistic counterposition to commercial school and kindergarten photography”. (Artistic Director ) Collaboration with the photographer Ulrike Fox, the Gelsenkirchen City Library and the Grundschule am Schloss in Gelsenkirchen-Horst.

» HAMASAT #7

Hamasat Photo Gallery, Qatif, Saudi Arabia (joint exhibition)

» Women, Men, Children, Asphalt

Photographic statements on the sight of everyday life, Gelsenkirchen, Participant & artistic director (joint exhibition)

2013

→ Us in Gelsenkirchen

Social documentary photography. Exhibition of the documentation in Horst Castle, Gelsenkirchen (solo exhibition)

» Strong characters

Interdisciplinary art exhibition with the visually impaired artist Bärbel Frank, Hamburg, Dorsten

» Faces of dementia

Portraits of people suffering from dementia in cooperation with the Alzheimer Society Gelsenkirchen, Werner-Thiel-Halle & Nordsternturm, Gelsenkirchen (solo exhibition)

2012

HAMASAT #5

Hamasat Photo Gallery, Qatif, Saudi Arabia (joint exhibition)

Press

» Press article on the exhibition ‘Committee’, Neuss-Grevenbroicher-Zeitung (2024)

» Press article “The essentials in black and white”, Westdeutsche Zeitung (2024)

» Press article on the exhibition “Focus on the essentials”, Rheinische Post (2024)

» Press article in the Rheinische Post on the exhibition “Encounters”

» WAZ article: An unembellished view that also shows the city’s scars

» kulturonline.tv – Four artists show violence

» Presentation of the photo book Gelsenkirchen beyond football on Gelsenkichen.de

» Exhibition “Between the tracks” turns the neighbourhood into a living room

» stadTraum – Jaqueline Lobodda and Thomas Klingberg show urban perspectives

» Empty shop becomes a gallery (PDF)

» A touch of Berlin

» “Be how you feel”

» An exhibition far removed from the selfie mentality

» “Back from Moscow”

» Art project takes a poetic look at the everyday

» “Poetry and everyday life” takes a special look at the everyday

» Poetry meets Berlin cityscapes

» Modern fairy tales and city stories. Radio podcast on Ö1

» On the road with the Lagerfeld troupe (PDF)

» Magazine fotoPRO
Edition 1/12, October 2012:
“The street is a stage” – Interview on the topic
social documentary photography of everyday life.

Magazine fotoPraxis, issue 1/13, January 2013
Interview on the topic
“Urban Photography and Photography Law”

Testimonials

“Thomas Klingberg … searches for human expression. And finds it among old people, whom he photographs with great respect in their modest everyday lives: three elderly “graces” sitting happily in front of the house in the Italian province, a “basket weaver” proudly presenting her work, a melancholy “pensioner in Gelsenkirchen” perched on an armchair among memories. From the series “Dementia Portraits” come the “States 1-3″ in the face of an old lady trying to capture her thoughts. The pictures are silent, as vernissage speaker Stefan Skowron remarked. What they tell is created in the viewer.” Cultural journalist Birgit Koelgen about the exhibition → Focus on the essential)

“You will leave this exhibit with a different consciousness than when you entered it.” (Mayor Klaudia Zepuntke, Düsseldorf, about the exhibition → Breaks and new beginnings)

“In Thomas Klingberg’s photographs, you can see in black and white what is hardly noticed in the grey tones of society.” (Writer→ Frank Schablewski)

“I was very touched by the way Thomas dealt with the children in the hospice. He communicated with them without speaking their language. When you saw how much closeness the children allowed, you could have thought Thomas had been a part of the institution for a long time.” (Dr. Natasha Grigorian, Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center in Moscow)

“Klingberg’s photographs are carried by a deep humanism. A master of the iconography of everyday life.” (Dr. Rainer Strzolka, literary scholar and photographer)

“He is not only a good photographer, he can also climb very fast over very high walls” (One of the protagonists of the photo series → “Illegale Sprayer”)

” … seeks the edges of society, where life is direct and maskless, in the space where there are cracks, constraints, longings, and laughter of despair. He records this life with the camera, directly and honestly in intimacy. Life wins, the photograph becomes a secondary matter.” (Barbara Oestersötebier)

“A rather wide photographic spectrum, where not everything pleases me. But the portraits are remarkable & extraordinary.” (→ Angelika Richter, artist, architect)

“These photos would only touch me intensely if they were stapled to me.” (Visitor of one of my exhibitions)

“The wonderful pictures, created under the guidance of Thomas Klingberg, touch, admonish and encourage. Are bizarre, even annoying and put a finger in the wounds of our city.” (Britta Zweigner, managing director renatec GmbH about the publication → STADT. ALLTAG. UMWELT.)

It is interesting that such a positive, open and cheerful person takes such oppressive and depressive photos. He is a man of contrasts. (Anna Kruitikova, visitor of the exhibition “Moscow Study” in Moscow)

“He is a philanthropist. You see in his photos. You can feel it in personal contact” (artist → Jaqueline Lobodda)

“Through the choice of his unusual exhibition locations, he provides people with access to attractive photography who would otherwise hardly come into contact with it” (Reinhold Adam, former city councillor in the cultural committee of the city of Gelsenkirchen)

“I am impressed by his in-depth image and portfolio analysis. He has the eye, the ability and the desire to deal with foreign image content and to give valuable suggestions.” (Photographer → Alexandre Sladkevich)

“I warmly recommend this book, its pictures and thoughts to you” (Helga Stulgies, Department of the Environment in Düsseldorf, from the preface to the publication → STADT. ALLTAG. UMWELT.)

Publications

» Breaks and new beginnings

Exhibition catalogue
(ISBN: 9783754135365)

» City. Everyday life. Environment.

Photographic observations of everyday life.
(ISBN 9783750200647)

» Gelsenkirchen beyond football

Photo book “Gelsenkirchen beyond football”
(ISBN 9783749465491)

» Poetry & Everyday life

Publication to the eponymous
Art project in public space
(ISBN 9783738640090)

» FORESTRY

Social documentary photography:
Photographic documentation
social work, photo book on the exhibition
(ISBN 9783741294624)

» Italy monochrom

Exhibition catalogue
(ISBN 9783738647471)

» Gdańsk

A photographic walk
(ISBN 9783844279801)

» Us in Gelsenkirchen-Horst

Social documentary photography
Exhibition catalogue
(ISBN 9783844276046)