The Leica Gallery Stuttgart presents an exhibition by the German photographer Henrike Stahl, who lives in France. She uses hybrid practices to illustrate the thousand possibilities of reality and to create a dialogue between worlds. Home and identity are central themes of her photographic practice. For her, plurality is a guarantee of richness, and she crumples, cuts, and experiments with paper without manipulating reality.
The photographs and poetic interventions in the image were created during her stay at the French vineyard Château Palmer in 2023. Her series "L'arc sera parmi les nuages" tells the daily life of the winemakers and portrays the young people mostly from the surrounding suburbs, who are preceded by a bad reputation. She poetically documents how these young people contribute to the processes on the vineyard and learn through the knowledge conveyed. "It quickly became clear to me that transmission is part of a broader philosophy: At Palmer, not only wine is produced, but also people are helped to develop. They give young people a chance and believe in learning. The young people here are buds. My task is to photograph these buds as they bloom." (Henrike Stahl)
Stahl captures everything that lies outside the frame and traces its discreet furrow: marginal figures, transitional states, the delicacy of the edges. During her months at Château Palmer, she captured the work of the winemakers with a complicit sensitivity, observing transmissions, experimenting, and literally dipping her prints into the soil to give birth to gentle, poetic visions.
An omnipresent threat in this close-to-nature approach is the threat of drought and the geographically induced rising sea level, slowly engulfing the land. "How can we save our earth from this fear of flooding, which is omnipresent in a place like Château Palmer - the vineyard is very close to the sea. And what can be done to save our societal values beyond that. Exchange is very important. Passing on what one has learned. Passing things on to posterity."
Consciously, Stahl chooses a positive perspective on her environment. The unusual practices of biodynamic agriculture inspired Stahl to continue her experimental approach to photography. She exposes the photographs to various processes and influences from viticulture. Everything the winemakers do, she does too. Nature has the final word - in wine and in her art. The artist continues the influence of nature in the haptic post-processing through cutting in the motif.
Vineyards and grapes, animals like goats and pigs, and above them the looming flood - many motifs from Henrike Stahl's series L'arc sera parmi les nuages evoke associations with metaphors from the biblical Noah's Ark story, like a magnet, as described by the author Carla Erdmann. Translated into German, the title means "There will be the rainbow in the clouds." The natural phenomenon as a sign of hope is a central aspect of Stahl's visual parable: "How can we save our earth from this fear of flooding. And what can be done to save our societal values beyond that. Exchange is very important. Passing on what one has learned. Not just doing one's own thing in one's corner, for oneself alone." The biblical parable was not present at the beginning of her Instants residency, but emerged during the work on the series.
The exhibition "Henrike Stahl | HEIMATFÄRBUNG" can be seen from July 25 to October 4, 2025, at the Leica Gallery Stuttgart (Calwer Straße 41). The gallery is open Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free. The photographs are available for purchase. An artist's book was published on the series by the publisher Filigranes.
HENRIKE STAHL
As a self-taught photographer born in Gießen in 1980, Henrike Stahl has assisted Steve Hiett and Paolo Roversi. Since 2001, she has been working independently in the field of portrait and fashion. She was initially inspired by Wolfgang Tillmans, Rineke Dijkstra, and Nan Goldin. She made a name for herself with her first series "93," breaking stereotypes about suburban Paris. As a photographic artist, she enjoys experimenting with prints, painting, folding, or using other creative techniques. In 2023, she was the second artist in residence of Leica and Château Palmer's Instants program. Her images have been exhibited in Paris, Berlin, and Arles, among others. She lives and works in Germany and France.