Renowned photographer Hans-Christian Schink is showcasing his deep connection to his adopted home region of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in a new exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts (MdbK) in Leipzig. The acclaimed artist, who belongs to the most distinguished photographers of his generation, presents his latest work series titled "Über Land" (Across the Land), marking the first time this collection has been displayed publicly.

Born in Erfurt and educated at the Leipzig University of Fine Arts, Graphics and Book Design, Schink has spent much of his career creating photographic series during extensive travels around the world. However, this current exhibition reveals a more intimate side of the well-traveled artist's work. For the past ten years, Schink has lived in a small village in the Mecklenburg Lake District, where he finds his subjects within a 50-kilometer radius of his home.

The photographer explores fields, hills, and forests in his surroundings, creating both minimalist and poetic landscape photographs. He is particularly fascinated by the subdued colors of nature during autumn and winter seasons. Through his lens, Schink captures images that possess a distinctive graphic quality, transforming ordinary rural scenes into compelling artistic statements.

One of the exhibition's focal points is the "Hinterland" cycle, where Schink documents the stark beauty of winter landscapes. He describes photographing a group of trees covered with snow on one side, creating "a permanent shift from almost black to white." Another striking image shows a group of bare pollard willows in the winter landscape, which evokes "an almost sublime or lost feeling, depending on how one chooses to see it," according to the photographer.

During his explorations through nature, Schink has also drawn inspiration from the region's numerous ponds, lakes, and waterways, creating magical underwater photographs. These unique images were captured from a stand-up paddleboard, where he held his camera at promising spots in the water and "moved it through the water with slow series settings," allowing himself to be surprised by the results.

The underwater series reveals exotic-looking images in suggestive colors, ranging from delicate brown and green tones to brilliant yellow and orange hues. These dreamlike spheres possess their own unique charm and magic. Schink describes being fascinated by the underwater world, noting "you can see air bubbles hanging on various plants everywhere, which appear like their own cosmos." He compares these images to science fiction worlds and admits to being completely surprised by their diversity.

Another significant component of the exhibition is the photographic series "Am Weg" (On the Path), which explores hidden worlds and discovers what lies right outside one's front door. This series focuses on a three-kilometer-long path that leads from the photographer's house through the Mecklenburg agricultural landscape to a hidden lake. Remarkably, Schink identified 263 plant species along this route, a number he "never would have expected in my lifetime."

This natural treasure trove is presented through various photographic techniques. The exhibition includes classic black-and-white landscape photographs depicting the stations along the path, as well as colorfully illuminated close-up shots of blossoms created in the studio. The result is a fascinating photographic herbarium with contemporary aesthetics that allows viewers to see nature from an entirely new perspective.

The "Über Land" exhibition runs until March 11, 2026, at the Museum of Fine Arts Leipzig, located at Katharinenstraße 10. The museum is open Tuesday and Thursday through Sunday from 10 AM to 6 PM, and Wednesday from noon to 8 PM, with Mondays closed. Admission costs 10 euros for adults and 5 euros for reduced tickets. This comprehensive showcase of Schink's work demonstrates how extraordinary art can emerge from careful observation of one's immediate surroundings, transforming the familiar landscapes of rural Germany into compelling visual narratives.