Exhibitions, Marathons and Olympic Stadiums all in a day’s visit to Munich.

As I wrote in my previous post about attending the Trierenberg super circuit gala dinner, getting there needed some planning as the flights didn’t work out well from the north of England. So after a lot of research by my wife, the best option for us involved a trip to London and then a flight from Gatwick to Munich, which gave us an opportunity to spend a day in Munich.

However, while in London we used the time to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum and the exhibition of the work of the German photographer Horst. The exhibition is entitled ‘Horst: Photographer of Style’. The German theme of the whole trip started here.

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(Image from the V&A website)

This exhibition is well worth a visit as his images are excellent – many in black and white. His mastery of how light falls, composition and his ability to create atmosphere and sensual illusion using light is seen throughout the exhibition. It’s not all his fashion work either – there is a good selection of his other work which is also very strong too. Well worth the visit (the exhibition runs until 4th January 2015).

Then on to the delights of Gatwick airport. I have to say we cleared the security checks very quickly and the Easyjet flight was good too. We had booked a hotel near the airport as it seemed the most sensible option as we were arriving at around 21:00 and if we were delayed getting into Munich, then finding the hotel might be very stressful, after a long day traveling.

The day spent in Munich turned out to be interesting both photographically and culturally. It transpired that the Munich marathon was taking place. We had not really researched what was on in the city apart from a read of an article listing the 10 best things to do in Munich, so we got the chance to watch the early stages of the marathon and it’s runners and then the later stages too.

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In the 5000
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Marathon
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Richard Spurdens Photography – sports photography series

One of the recommendations was to visit the Brandhorst Museum which is a modern art gallery. Again, no research as to what exhibition might have been on, but to my delight they were running a exhibition of Richard Avedon images. The exhibition is entitled: ‘Murals and Portraits’, covering a range of his work starting with three of his large photographic murals made from 1969 – 1971.  These were complimented with his portrait work of some of the most famous people of the 50s onwards including Frances Bacon, Samuel Beckett and Buster Keaton. Another set was entitled: ‘The American West’; again a set of strong portraits of ordinary working Americans.

This was another well curated exhibition and showed a very good range of his other work (some for the first time).

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Jorge
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Viewing-Becket

The other location that we had planned to visit was the Olympic Stadium built for the 1972 summer Olympics. Travelling on the Underground to the stadium and BMW museum was very busy and it was only when we got out of the station that we realised that the Stadium was being used for the finish of the marathon. This it turned out was a good thing as there was no admission charge to get in and look round, and it gave you a feel of the atmosphere of the place as the runners were completing their final lap of the stadium track to the finish line. The architecture was also impressive with it’s 70 design still looking modern and futuristic.

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Stadium architure
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Richard Spurdens Photography – travel photography series

So overall a good day in the city of Munich – and I think we will return again for a slightly longer visit.