Ute Mahler, a young East German photographer in the 1970s, photographed everyday life in the city of Lehnitz, where she lived during the Soviet era. Her photographs are fascinating in their own right, and also in comparison to the photographs of Brinkmann and Page currently on view in Fenwick Gallery.
See a selection of Mahler’s work in The New Yorker article from October 29th, 2014. As written by Thea Traff, a photo editor at The New Yorker:
“Most East German photography at the time, Mahler recalled, was ‘sugar-coated’ propaganda. Mahler, along with a few others, set out to photograph the less promising realities of life in East Germany.
Mahler photographed acquaintances and strangers alike, aware that her work might never reach a larger audience, and that she risked being chastised by the government.”
