On fleeting existence and uncertain happiness The late GDR era in photography

The end of the GDR is not the end of its images. Which perspectives do we choose to form a picture of a society whose inner constitution still leaves many questions unanswered today?

On fleeting existence and uncertain happiness is a photo book and reader about the late GDR and the first post-reunification years. It includes established protagonists of photographic art as well as now almost forgotten photographers, most of whom lived and grew up in the GDR, flanked by photographic views of the GDR by foreign photographers. The book’s positions move from documentary practices to artistic and staged visual worlds, they include the media border crosser photographic film, and question the relationship between film and photography. In-depth essays and supplementary texts by renowned authors provide a multi-perspective approach to the photographic material.

With photographs by: Claus Bach , Kurt Buchwald, Gerd Danigel, Christiane Eisler, Margit Emmrich, Seiichi Furuya, Christine Furuya Gössler, Gerhard Gäbler, Christina Glanz, Anselm Graubner, Wolfgang Gregor, Gerald Große, Ingrid Hartmetz, Steffen Heckel, Harald Kirschner, Thomas Kläber, Matthias Leupold, Wolf Lützen, Barbara Metselaar Berthold, Katharina Müller, Hans Pieler, Christine Radack, Enkhbat Roozon, Andreas Rost, Ilse Ruppert, Einar Schleef, Jim Schütz, Günter Starke, Gabriele Stötzer, Ines Thate-Keler, Jörn Vanhöfen, Siegfried Wittenburg, Ulrich Wüst, Renate Zeun, Helmut Ziebarth

With film stills by: Peter Badel, Margit Emmrich, Hans Wintgen

With contributions by: Anne Barnert, Matthias Dell, Axel Doßmann, Margit Emmrich, Constanze Freund, Annett Gröschner, Judith Hermann, Bertram Kaschek, Manuela Klaut, Marko Martin, Manja Präkels, Victor del Oral, Anne Rabe, Susanne Regener, Inka Schube, Helga Schubert, Steffen Siegel, Michael Venus, Katharina Warda, among others, as well as interviews with Julia Blume and Hansgert Lambers