Romain Urhausen

Overview

Prolific but little known in France, Luxembourg photographer Romain Urhausen stands out for his singular style, spanning the French humanist school and the German subjective school of the 1950s and 1960s, to which he actively contributed. His photographs, often a pretext for formal and poetic exploration, and tinged with humor, go beyond a classic depiction of reality. Urhausen took an experimental approach to daily life, working people, the city, the nude, and the self-portrait. The subjective aesthetic he learned from Otto Steinert influenced his formal language, treatment of contrasts, framing, and way of seeing the world differently.

Paul di Felice

Works

Series

Biography

1930

Romain Urhausen is born on September 29 in Rumelange (Luxembourg). He begins photography during his first years of high school in Esch-sur-Alzette.

1946-1950

He takes part in international exhibitions (Chicago international exhibition of Photography et 4^e Foire internationale de l’art photographique in Luxembourg).

1950-1951

Romain Urhausen studies at the Ecole technique de photographie et de cinéma in Paris and takes part in photography exhibitions in Cuba, Brazil and in Sweden.

1951-1953

He studies at the Staatliche Schule für Kunst und Handwerk Saarbrücken under the supervision of Otto Steinert. He graduates with honors and takes part in the exhibition organized by Steinert called subjektive fotografie 1.

1953

Urhausen is selected by Edward Steichen to show his work in the exhibition Postwar European Photography at the MoMA, in New York.

1954-1956

After his military service as a war photographer, Romain Urhausen contributes to the second touring exhibition subjektive fotografie 2 by Otto Steinert.

1954-1957

Urhausen opens his own photography studio in Esch-sur-Alzette. His photographs are regularly published in the Luxembourg press.

1957-1959

He teaches the photography, film and graphic design class at the Werkkunstschule in Dortmund and opens there a photography, advertising and design agency.

1959

Romain Urhausen takes part in the Otto Steinert und Schüler exhibition at the Folkwang museum in Essen.

1961

He publishes his first book Die Stadt-Notre ville, Esch-sur-Alzette, with Nic Weber.

1962

He begins his project about Les Halles with Jacques Prévert and organizes his first solo exhibition as a member of Le Club photographique de Paris also known as Les 30x40.

1963

Urhausen helps designing the exhibition Luxembourg, histoire d’une ville millénaire in Luxembourg.

1966

He moves to Dortmund in Cologne.

1968-1974

Romain Urhausen works as an architect, interior and industrial designer.

1973

He moves to Roussillon (Vaucluse, France) where he opens an architecture and industrial design office. He teaches architectural photography at the university of Marseille.

1990

Romain Urhausen takes part in the exhibition Otto Steinert und Schüler. Fotografie und Ausbildung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland von 1948-1978, curated by Ute Eskildsen, at the Folkwang Museum in Essen.

2003

His work is exhibited at the Galerie Schlassgoart, founded by the ARBED company, now known ArcelorMittal. A catalogue with a text by Dr. Roland Augustin is published at the same time.

2016

The Centre national de l’audiovisuel (CNA) in Luxembourg organizes a major monographic exhibition of Urhausen’s work as well as a reference book synthesizing in-depth research on his work and archives.

2021

Romain Urhausen dies on July 7 in Luxembourg.

Press