{"id":261544,"date":"2025-11-04T08:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T08:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/261544\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T08:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T08:14:16","slug":"berlin-photographer-paul-hutchinson-captures-the-grit-and-poetry-of-a-changing-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/261544\/","title":{"rendered":"Berlin Photographer Paul Hutchinson Captures the Grit and Poetry of a Changing City"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Berlin studio of Irish German artist Paul Hutchinson<\/a> is scattered with stuff, splayed out like a shrine to his evolving practice. Case in point: One of the last remaining prints of Vorw\u00e4rts (2017) captures his beat-up black Reebok sneaker, its side seam split open from wear after two harsh winters. <\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, that piece was key to understanding my own practice,\u201d Hutchinson told Artsy. \u201cThere\u2019s everything I want to convey in my practice: the culture I come from, the clothing and codes of youth culture, the roughness of growing up here\u2014it\u2019s carrying all of that inside.\u201d These objects and works trace the themes that have come to define his practice: inequality, urban life, and social mobility. <\/p>\n

For over a decade, Hutchinson has translated his observations into works of photography, text, and, more recently, performance. Last year, his first Paris solo show, \u201cHues<\/a>,\u201d opened at Bremond Capela<\/a>, which represents the artist alongside Knust Kunz Gallery Editions<\/a> and Sies + H\u00f6ke<\/a>. Collectors and institutions have taken notice: Hutchinson has pieces in the new show, \u201cWhere to? Kunsthalle\/City\/Society of the Future,\u201d at Kunsthalle D\u00fcsseldorf, and his work red glow (2022) was purchased by the Museum Folkwang<\/a> in Essen, Germany, this past September. His work will also be on view in a new show at The Blanc in New York later this month.<\/p>\n

Much of his practice has been communicated through books. In last year\u2019s catalogue Remnants. Selected Works 2019\u20132024, Hutchinson photographed the remains of graffiti he noticed in Berlin\u2019s labyrinthine transit system, turning chipped paint and layers of tags into abstraction and a potent metaphor for the city\u2019s sanitization of self-expression. \u201cI realized they\u2019re about trying to scrape subculture away, and it still resists\u2014there\u2019s still some leftovers,\u201d Hutchinson said.<\/p>\n

As a native Berliner, the artist has witnessed the city\u2019s historic subculture being gradually eroded; the city\u2019s cultural budget slashed while rents and the cost of living skyrocket. The construction sites for luxury housing units inspired Stadt f\u00fcr Alle (City for All) (2020), \u201cthe ugliest book [he\u2019s] ever done,\u201d the artist joked during a recent studio visit. It presents images of cranes, excavators, and construction sites transforming Berlin\u2019s urban sprawl, and remains one of the most important series for him personally. \u201cThere\u2019s a German term called Machtarchitektur, [meaning] \u2018architecture of power or authority.\u2019 It\u2019s solely about feeling pushed out of a city\u2014pushing me out, my family out, all of my friends out.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hutchinson\u2019s socioeconomic awareness began in the 1990s. He grew up working class in northern Sch\u00f6neberg, a rough West Berlin neighborhood caught in the aftermath of the city\u2019s reunification. His time was split between \u201csmoking [and] causing trouble\u201d on the streets and listening to live music inside his parents\u2019 raucous Irish pub. <\/p>\n

These two environments helped to shape his identity, but it was a funding program for low-income students that put him on the path toward artmaking. Hutchinson found his way to Valencia, Spain, on a study abroad program where he drifted into the school\u2019s photography lab. \u201cPeople were going to the beach and I was stuck in the darkroom,\u201d he recalled. Photography intrigued him: \u201cAlthough you\u2019re making images that depict something that\u2019s there, if you get it right, they can also depict what\u2019s in you.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Paul\"Paul<\/p>\n

Upon his return to Berlin, Hutchinson\u2019s world fully opened up as he began to experiment with photography and travel, relying on scholarships and grants. \u201cI feel so privileged having had that curiosity about stuff in my late teens and early twenties. I went all over the world and looked at shit, and that really has made me the person I am today,\u201d he recalled. <\/p>\n

Of all his adventures\u2014from working with Magnum photographer Steve McCurry<\/a> in New York in 2010 to a stint living abroad in Rio de Janeiro\u2014it may be a period spent in London studying photography at Central Saint Martins that left the deepest mark. \u201cBefore going to Britain, I didn\u2019t really know what capitalism meant,\u201d he admitted. \u201cAfter two years there, I saw it oozing out of everything. It made me sick.\u201d Like many struggling art students, he took on a dead-end job working for Zara on Bond Street, before a cold email to Wolfgang Tillmans<\/a> landed him a gig helping design the photographer\u2019s many books. It was a formative era, but one that became financially unsustainable for the young artist once he\u2019d graduated, prompting him to move back to Berlin in 2014. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

In the decade since returning home, Hutchinson has settled into himself as he experimented with new media. His first major shift past the bounds of photography came in 2018, with the release of his first book in two languages: Texte und Bilder and Pictures & Words\u2014two distinct versions of the same set of images, featuring original texts in either German or English. Layering his writing atop the photos was freeing, but the quality of the images was also key. \u201cI\u2019d taken that step and left behind a very conservative, pristine way of image-making,\u201d he recalled. \u201cWhen making this book, I thought: That\u2019s what I want to speak about. The beauty of grainy culture and gritty roughness, and the beauty and the problems I see in it. And how, through that lens, I look at things happening today.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent years, Hutchinson has also ventured into the realm of performance, turning texts into both sound pieces and readings that make use of his lilting Irish accent. \u201cThe vocalization of the writing really feels like part of my work by now,\u201d he told Artsy as he dug around on his laptop to find the recording of his two-part performance piece Innere Stadt (City Within) (2025). Hutchinson pressed play on the more barbed second section, in English, which spoke directly to the city\u2019s plan to slash \u20ac130 million<\/a> ($152.8 million) from arts and culture funding in 2025.<\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you really believe what you\u2019re being told? There\u2019s no waiting around where we\u2019re from. Time to step up and call out what\u2019s wrong.\u201d It\u2019s a charged performance, but one that speaks to Hutchinson\u2019s lived reality as he juggles the pressures of being a working artist and enduring a cost-of-living crisis. \u201cI\u2019m not in it for the money, but if you have a child and a studio and rent to pay, you do have to think about it,\u201d he said. \u201cBut on the other hand, I\u2019m naively optimistic.\u201d <\/p>\n

The swirl of money and power may not stray far from his mind, but for Hutchinson, creating art isn\u2019t about communicating some grand statement. \u201cI don\u2019t think I can speak any truths because there are no truths in that way,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt\u2019s just my lived experience. It\u2019s what I\u2019ve been through, what made me who I am, what I was born into.\u201d The personal may often edge into the political, but Hutchinson\u2019s aim isn\u2019t just to invite critique; it\u2019s to invite contemplation on reality itself: \u201cOne thing I feel touched by and inspired by that gets overlooked is a sense of wonder for the everyday; a sense of wonder for this place we live in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Artsy Vanguard 2026<\/p>\n

The Artsy Vanguard is now in its eighth year of highlighting the most promising artists working today. As 2026 approaches, we\u2019re celebrating 10 talents poised to become future leaders of contemporary art and culture. <\/p>\n

Explore more of The Artsy Vanguard 2026<\/a> and browse works by the artists<\/a>.<\/p>\n

CE<\/p>\n

\"CET\"<\/p>\n

Chris Erik Thomas<\/p>\n

Chris Erik Thomas is a Berlin-based journalist and editor covering art, fashion, and culture. He previously worked as the digital editor at Art D\u00fcsseldorf for two editions of the fair, and his writing has appeared in Fantastic Man, ARTnews, Highsnobiety, The Art Newspaper, and numerous other publications. His newsletter, Public Service, is a catalog of fixations and essays.<\/p>\n

Video by Pushpin Films \/ Paola Calvo for Artsy.<\/p>\n

Thumbnail: Portrait of Paul Hutchinson by Paola Calvo for Artsy, 2025; Paul Hutchinson, from left to right: \u201cGlare,\u201d 2020, and \u201cSchmetterlinge, pink and yellow,\u201d 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Bremond Capela.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Berlin studio of Irish German artist Paul Hutchinson is scattered with stuff, splayed out like a shrine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[70710,449,458,459,64,63,153625,153628,460,134,153626,153624,153627,20832],"class_list":["post-261544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-artist-profiles","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bremond-capela","tag-chris-erik-thomas","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-knust-kunz-gallery-editions","tag-paul-hutchinson","tag-sies-hoke","tag-vanguard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}