Sven Marquardt

By Ben Stephens.

There are two ways to describe Sven, then again you need to know both sides of the story to understand the man that he is. Let’s start with the origin story and see where we end up with understanding the world’s most notorious nightclub bouncer/contemporary photographer. In late 1989, the Berlin Wall comes down and then to a younger Marquardt, the world was opened up. He tells a story about how East Berlin felt like it had been let go and you could do anything you wanted, like break into empty apartments and open a bar or take over a disused power plant and set up a weekend-long nightclub. Sven was in need of some Deutsche Mark (old school German dosh) at the time and ended up working security at the power plant, which was a fetish night when it first opened. Now that club is known as Berghain (pronounced Berg-hine) and has been called the best techno club in the world, from those who know best.

That was many moons ago now, even still to this day you’ll find Sven Marquardt in complete control of the line of clubbers outside Berghain, a matter of fact, he controls the door and the people allowed into the club in such a way, that there are complete internet forums out there to help punters get in.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFN13UqibNe/

Sven himself rocks a number of face tattoos and piercings, really adding to his warm character. Though when he’s not letting people onto the world best techno dance floor, Sven has a talent that comes from him behind a camera, shooting interesting portraits really, really well. The fascinating individuals that he captures add to his black and white grace range from all over, from fashion icons to East Berlin locals.

The boss @svenmarquardt at the artist talk before the opening of his debut Australian exhibition last Thursday titled 'Future's Past' – presented by @ambushgallery @gi_australien and @centralparkmall_ The exhibition will run until Sunday 5 June, 12-8pm daily. For an exhibition sales catalogue please email [email protected] #ambushgallery #goetheinstitut #centralparkmall_ #centralparksydney #chippendale #svenmarquardt #berghain #berghainberlin #berlin #headonphotofestival #sydney #photography #fineart #fineartphotography

A post shared by aMBUSH Gallery (@ambushgallery) on May 8, 2016 at 6:17pm PDT

The good people at Ambush Gallery, Central Park and the Goethe-Institut are hosting Marquardt’s newest body of work Future’s Past and I feel I should tell you, it’s pretty good… pretty darn good. The exhibition is in town as a part of the Head On Photo Festival, a personal favourite on the Sydney festival scene. Get down to Central park to check out the mad creativity that ‘the man behind the line’ holds, it’s a walk inside his mind.

Sven Marquardt’s ‘Future Past’ will be at Ambush Gallery until June 5, 2016.

A post shared by Sven Marquardt (@svenmarquardt) on Apr 5, 2013 at 12:45pm PDT