42. Thomas Weski

Thomas Weski is one of the finest German photography curators.

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Episode 42: Thomas Weski is a very important curator in the world of photography. He has been active promoting the work of artists such as William Eggleston, Michael Schmidt with his exhibitions for decades. He is the author and editor of numerous exhibition catalogues of significance such as Click Doubleclick: The Documentary Factor,  Cruel and Tender, and numerous others. He has contributed to monographs by Michael Schmidt, Joachim Brohm, and Rineke Dijkstra.

I has met Thomas in 2017 when I was leading a workshop for the Berlin Fotokiez with John Gossage. John had arranged for us to visit the Michael Schmidt archive and Thomas gave our group of participants a tour of the work and life of Schmidt. Schmidt’s work is highly influential on my own way of seeing photography and the experience was eye-opening and educational. I kept in touch with Thomas and was delighted that he accepted my request to interview him in December of 2019 in Berlin.

Our discussion ranged from many topics including the work of Schmidt, but also how collections function in Germany and abroad. We covered Thomas’ history and how he came to being the widely recognized curator that he is today. The conversation felt comfortable and I had many questions. You can hear the overexcitement in my delivery of questions. We ended up speaking for something like four hours that day, but we cut the recording off about mid-point as some things are better left un-recorded. I felt Thomas was more than accommodating and he and his work remain highly influential and important for me.

I hope you enjoy this episode. We cover a lot of ground. I want to express a special thank you to both Thomas for enduring my barrage of eager questions. The recording is a bit low on this, so please do turn up and tune in.