City, Country, Work

Ute Mahler und Werner Mahler

Monalisen der Vorstädte, 2009–2011

“Monalisen der Vorstädte” is the first project that Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler have realized together. They spent three years traveling across Europe, photographing young women in Liverpool, Minsk, Florence, Reykjavik and Berlin. They focused their approach on girls living on the outskirts of big cities. Using an old large format camera, including a black cloth, a tripod, and a chair custom made for the shoot, the Mahlers photographed the confident women in their habitat, the periphery, in the visual tradition of the half-length portrait. As these locations represent an “in-between” – they are neither village nor city, neither industry nor nature – so too are the young women in transition, on the cusp of adulthood.

Johanna-Maria Fritz gemeinsam mit Charlotte Schmitz

Garden of Lost Dreams, 2016

For their joint project “Garden of Lost Dreams” the two photographers accompany young men who work as prostitutes in the Tiergarten in Berlin and trade their bodies there. Something crucial has changed compared to the past: They are young, male refugees who offer their services without any legal protection in the park near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. By using Polaroids, the female photographers were able to gain the trust of the individuals, whose anonymity they preserve in their photographs. With the publication of the photo project, a sponsorship project was launched in parallel to support the men.

Mila Teshaieva

I am always free, 2018–2020

In her work “I am always free” (“Ich bin immer frei”) Mila Teshaieva explores how people today live in the former industrial areas of East German cities, 30 years after reunification. For this she visited residents of Halle, Delitzsch, Wolfen and Eisleben. Places that have undergone drastic change since reunification – where there were once centers of industrial pride, there are now neglected industrial ruins. The project focuses on the private memories of the people, memories of their time in the GDR, as well as the changes that swept in with the fall of the Wall and continue to this day. The focus for the photographer remains focused on the people’s living environment and conditions.

Harald Hauswald

Everyday life, 1976–1990

Harald Hauswald, born in Radebeul, Saxony, moved to East Berlin in 1977 after an apprenticeship as a photographer. In East Berlin, all the pictures in the series “Everyday Life” were taken, showing scenes on the street, in the subway, and in bars. They are snapshots that the photographer captured during his forays through the city. All of them give an unadulterated account of the multifaceted everyday life of the residents of East Berlin and the transformation of the urban space. Today, more than 30 years after the fall of the Wall, they allow insights into the everyday life of the GDR, which was marked by decay and no longer exists in this form.

Stephanie Steinkopf

Manhattan, 2012

Manhattan is located in the German federal state Brandenburg. In the middle of the countryside, in the middle of the idyll and only an hour’s drive from Berlin. “Manhattan” is what the villagers in the Oderbruch region have been calling the two high-rise buildings for years. Manhattan is an image of economic boom and at the same time a place of bust. Since reunification, almost everything here has collapsed structurally. No one moves there anymore, and those who can, move away.

Werner Mahler

Coal mining, 1975

Werner Mahler accompanied the workers in a coal mine near Zwickau and documented their strenuous everyday work underground. The “Martin Hoop” mine was one of the last active hard coal mines in the GDR, as lignite was the country’s main source of energy. Unlike lignite, hard coal is mined by hand with a jackhammer, a thousand meters underground. Heavy physical work that seems to stem from another time. Three years later, the shaft was closed.

Ina Schoenenburg

Schmale Pfade, 2015

In “Narrow Paths” (“Schmale Pfade”) Ina Schoenenburg explores the northeast of the German federal state Brandenburg as well as the northwest of Poland along the German-Polish border. She is interested in the rough, wild and beautiful landscape, far away from idealized scenarios. Her focus extends to the inhabitants of this area, who spend their lives in this sparsely populated stretch of land, their peculiarities, stories and the interpersonal and cross-border relationships. In sometimes surreal images, fractures can often be seen that hide behind the supposed idyll. The viewer becomes witness to storm damage, sunken earth, small blemishes of the landscapes, but sometimes also loneliness and melancholy – inscribed in the faces of the portrayed.

Frank Schinski

Ist doch so, ab 2006

People’s everyday working lives and recreational spaces are Frank Schinski’s preferred motifs. His essayistic series “Ist doch so” (“That’s how it is”) is a collection of photographs from the last 15 years. These were either taken during commissions or in a free context. They represent subtle narratives, depicting people in situations before, during, or after their work. Labor that determines people’s everyday lives is a recurring theme in the photographer’s oeuvre.

Jordis Antonia Schlösser

Vor dem Verschwinden / Halle- Neustadt, 2002/2004

Since 1950, lignite excavators have been eating away the countryside in the Lower Rhine region, through forests, meadows, fields and villages. In her 2002 project, Jordis Antonia Schlösser empathetically documents the devastation of a cultural landscape and its consequences for its inhabitants. For a long time, life in the Halle region was shaped by lignite mining and chemical plants. After reunification, plant closures and mass layoffs led to high unemployment and the migration of large parts of the population from the affected region.