Miraprospekt, a collective in Berlin

Friday, August 10, 2012 | by Molly Benn | Interviews, Photography

I met a few photographers from Miraprospekt in the French festival Promenades Photographiques in Vendôme. They were exhibiting a group work about Albania. Jan Michalko, Jan Zappner and Gilles Roudière talked to me about their collective and I already had some ideas about questions I wanted to ask. On july 28th, they celebrated the opening of their last exhibition in the museum of photography in Görlitz. It’s now the occasion to let you discover this collective based in Berlin, created by Jan Michalko.

Andreas Pein, Albania

Age13 : What is Miraprospekt ?
Jan Michalko : Miraprospekt is a web showcase for independent photographers to show their personal series.
Self-initiated work anywhere between documentary and street photography. Maybe it insists on the fact that projects are independent from any command, they are under no constraints and don’t have a journalistic purpose.

Georg Knoll, Albania

Age13 : Why did you create Miraprospekt ?
J-M : After two group projects in Cairo and Albania with different photographers there was a need for a common stage to show the work as group portfolios. Miraprospekt is not a closed collective of photographers. Instead it is an open platform for more photographers in the future. The compilation of the different works will give miraprospekt its own identity.

Holger Biermann, Cairo

Age13 : Is it easier to work as a photographer since you created Miraprospekt ?
J-M : No, it’s not about that. Every photographer is an individual. The best miraprospekt can reach for now is to motivate photographers to continue shooting and to show their photographs a in surrounding they match in, in the internet, books and exhibitions. Miraprospekt offers a possibility to show personal works whithout being constrained by an editorial need.

Age13 : Why “Miraprospekt” ?
J-M : I picked up the name around 15 years ago in moskow. Mir means peace and prospekt is a long allee, a boulevard.
But a prospekt in german is also something like a magazine, to browse, to flip through and to explore something.