Rene Schmalschlaeger (RSRS)

April 27, 1985: Rene Schmalschläger at the age of 16 gets his first camera, a Fujica STX-1n with a 50mm lens, purchased at Kalverstraat 100, in Amsterdam for 337.85 guilders. Naughty pictures taken with this camera in 1989 get published in 2007 in Mein schuwules Auge and in 2008 are exhibited in a group exhibition in Berlin. He still has the warranty certificate for his first camera, the receipt stapled to it. That characterizes him. What is important is preserved, wears off but does not break. Very handy for a story like this because he has absolutely no sense of time, lives in a continuum. In 1995 after all kinds of schools René finally hits the street and is ready for the real thing. 1997 sees the beginning of a collaboration with Thomas Säckl. With provocative projects, national and international newspapers and magazines and national TV are finally reached in 2001. 2004 is the last project within this collaboration, a photo exhibition at RAM gallery. Here the photography itself is not the main focus but is used as a means; the same goes for a graphic work for the art magazine STEREO in 2005. 2005 is the year he purchases his first digital camera and rediscovers photography. As a prelude to more independent work, a collection of poems published in 2007 contains his photos. In 2008, at a group exhibition in Kunstraum Richard Sorge in Berlin, the photo “Holland’s Glory” is displayed and at the Rotterdam gallery BLAAK10 photos taken for Tim Leyendekker. In 2009 René self-publishes his book City Nature with romantic pictures of Rotterdam. In 2009 and 2010 he lives for a year in Barcelona and focuses entirely on photography. It is in Barcelona that he photographs his first wedding, a milestone for any photographer. In 2011 he publishes his book, A Barcelona, in which he tries to find a line in his photography. In 2012, an expert is brought in, curator Nataša Heydra, which results in an exhibition at SARATIMTRUST in Rotterdam and a magazine in 2013.