In February 2005 neunplus formed up from an initiative of students from the photography school "Fotografie am Schiffsbauer Damm" (FAS). After moving to the project room in Berlin Borsigstr. 9 in March, we went through a phase of intensive planning and renovation of the rooms.
In may we founded an association fort he promotion of independent photography and independent contemporary Art. Since the beginning of 2006 we have been accredited the status of a non-profit association. In January 2006 we also opened the exhibition rooms with a celebration and a group exhibition of the members' works.
In our opinion it is a sad fact that nowadays the journalistic market is more and more subjecting to the negative effects of economic globalization. The results are price dumping and the tendency towards easily consumable and all-purpose single pictures. Also a glance at the art market shows that prospects for independent photographers (meaning that the photographer chooses his/her own topic independently, financing it either by applying for funding or from his/her own pocket) are not good either. Although the importance of photography on the art market has increased, the few galerists specialized on photography are seldomly willing to take the risk to exhibit new, not yet established photographers.
With neunplus we want to establish a platform and a meeting point for independent photography in Berlin. Our aim is further to develop networks and cooperations as well as to realize regular exhibitions. Once a month we conduct an open meeting with the goal of providing the opportunity for exchange of experiences and discussion of pictures. All independent photographers, art theorists and other people who are interested in photography are heartily invited to participate in our meetings (please give us a note if you wish to come). We are especially happy to get to know other independent photographers looking for exhibition rooms.
Finally we would like to point out that in spite of our focus on independent photography we are open towards other art genres. In particular we want to contact young independent film-makers to provide them the opportunity to present their work to the public, in the setting of a film-screening combined with a talk with the artist.