Simone Nieweg is a German photographer born in 1962 who studied photography at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf under Bernd Becher from 1984-1990. Her early work focused on anonymous architecture found in gardens, like toolsheds and pigeon houses, as well as cityscapes, but she is most known for her colorful photographs of gardens that show how people use land freely without conforming to urban planning ideals. Her ongoing series depict landscapes that bear signs of human intervention through gardening or farming.

1. SIMONE NIEWEG
1962 GERMANY

2. 1984-1990
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Focused from the beginning on photography
Studied at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf
Studied under Bernd Becher, a professor
Dates her first independent work from 1986, when
she switched to colour photography

3. ABOUT PHOTOS
• First series centered around annymous architecture
of gardens: the self-made toolsheds, garden
cottages, or pigeon houses.
• Often created photos of department stores and
black-and-white city-scapes as well
• most impressive are the colour photographs of
garden areas, where people use the land that is at
their disposal, free of the city planners’ ideas about
order, how to grow vegetables or to raise rabbits or
doves.

4. ONGOING SERIES
• She started to go devoid of all architecture but not
human intervention.
• “Garden” and “Landscapes” show signs of human
intervention, whether addressing the suburban and
peripheral gardens or allotments, or almostmanufactured farmland.