Culture in the Ruhr Area" is a fascinating inventory of the largest metropolitan area in Germany and one of the largest in Europe. Characterized by coal, iron and steel for over 200 years, the silent witnesses and numerous monuments from this epoch still impress today. The architectural photographer Achim Bednorz, who has been working for international publishers for over 25 years and whose works have been published exclusively in more than 40 books, photographed the most important and distinctive industrial plants, buildings and traffic routes in this region in 2019. Some of them also tell about the present and shed light on the future of the Ruhr area.
The 463 photos impress with their clear, straightforward language and the force of the story that
captures every single picture. In doing so, they do not remain in melancholy memories. Rather, they breathe more fully
Respect the proud everyday life of past decades and signal that this is a lively region with enormous potential. The variety of motifs, the uniqueness of each individual object and the multifaceted moods that Bednorz expresses in his pictures make the book an intensive journey through time through a region that is unique in industrial history. The art historian and monument expert Walter Buschmann complements the visual with compact technical information. In addition, it gives further technical explanations in eighteen insets, for example about the mine, the blast furnace or steelmaking. The texts are written in German, English and French, commensurate with the international importance of the Ruhr area.