Rudolf Bonvie

The work is based on 60 selected French postcards from 1898 to 1918 depicting craftspeople, workers, street traders and philosophers. The titles of these postcards were entered into Google’s search engine, and the resulting images were combined with the original postcards to create collages. In addition, the postcard titles served as prompts for the Adobe Firefly AI model to generate images that were subsequently juxtaposed with the photographic collages. The selection and combination of archival material, images sourced from the internet, and AI-generated illustrations invite viewers to compare these different visual representations and make past and present visible. This photographic work documents the profound transformation of the world of work, tracing the shift from traditional forms of industrial labor to the digitized and automated processes of the present. 
The project was self-published as a book under the same title in 2024. Both the book’s title and cover refer to August Sander’s 1929 publication “Antlitz der Zeit” (Face of Our Time), an important work of social documentary photography that offers a distinctive portrait of German society.

Biography

Rudolf Bonvie, in *1947 in Hoffnungsthal (DE); lives and works in Cologne (DE) and Hoffnungsthal (Germany). Bonvie studied graphic arts at the Kölner Werkschulen, followed by studies at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Cologne. Works are held, among others, at the Folkwang Museum in Essen, MoMA in New York, the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich, Museum Ludwig in Cologne, ZKM in Karlsruhe, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and Kunstmuseum in Bonn.