Tom Mustroph's childhood isn't always an easy thing. How lost children may sometimes feel comes from "Citykids", an impressive black and white series by former stage designer and screenwriter Ann Lofy. There's a boy staring at a pig's head lying on a table at the boy's eye level. Fear, skepticism and curiosity can be seen in his big eyes. A bit of bread lies in front of him; it introduces a trace of unattended everyday life into the highly dramatic constellation at first sight. Lofy also shows smiling children, like two girls who seem to be missing from the camera, another who seems to look with big eyes over a drinking cup into the heart of the viewer. But then again there is a boy who has built himself up at the table in front of a wooden house in the green and emerges with anger in view from his hoodie.

Lofy, now a professor at the Kunstuni Graz, made the recordings during a field trip of city children.

Linn Schroeder, the third photographer in the federation and member of the renowned agency Ostkreuz, however, mainly captures situations of being guarded. Sometimes a mother apparently only keeps her child a few weeks old, then again two siblings are seen in the same outfit, at whose feet two dogs camp as protectors. And even with that girl clinging to a big stuffed animal, you can still discover the gently caressing hand of an adult. In her series "I think also family pictures" you can discover above all the scenic character of family pictures. Recordings of this genre are intended to express special happiness, thus the protagonists are arranged to small theatrical arrangements. The three series complement each other very well in their own motif flag. The wild urge of the ranks emerges, injury and vulnerability, but also the worrying net that is woven around them.

Sociological conclusions can hardly be drawn from the exhibition. There is too little information on the respective recording situations, such as location, time and context. Because Lofy and Schroeder have largely opted for black and white photographs, their series attaches something over-time. They may have been made recently, but they also come from decades ago. By contrast, Schirach's motives of the struggling children have instantaneous status; they seem to have arisen as in this moment and draw the viewers directly into the picture space.

The three photographers are on 27. September to an artist's meeting in the exhibition.

Up to five. October, Photo Gallery Friedrichshain, Helsingforser Square 1