Abstract
This paper discusses artistic documentary photography from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) from the mid-1970s until the fall of the Berlin Wall, and suggests that it functioned as a substitute public–Ersatzöffentlichkeit–in society. This concept of a substitute public sphere sometimes termed a counter-public sphere, relates to GDR literature that, in retrospect, has been allocated this role. On the whole, in critical discourse certain texts have been recognised as being distinct from GDR propaganda which sought to deliver alternative readings in their coded texts. I propose that photography, despite having had a different status to literature in the GDR, adopted similar traits and also functioned as part of a substitute public sphere. These photographers aimed to expose the existing gap between the propagandised and actual life under socialism. They embedded a moral and critical position in their photographs to comment on society and to incite debate. However, it was necessary for these debates to occur in the private sphere, so that artists and their audience would avoid state persecution. In this paper, I review Harald Hauswald’s series Everyday Life (1976–1990) to demonstrate how photographs enabled substitute discourses in visual ways. Hauswald is a representative of artistic documentary photography and although he was never published in the official GDR media, he was the first East German photographer to publish in renowned West German and European media outlets, such as GEO magazine and ZEITmagazin, before the reunification. In 1990, he founded the ‘Ostkreuz–Agency of Photographers’ with six other East German documentary photographers.
Highlights
Hauswald is a representative of artistic documentary photography and he was never published in the official German Democratic Republic (GDR) media, he was the first East German photographer to publish in renowned West German and European media outlets, such as GEO magazine and ZEITmagazin, before the reunification
In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) photography was a contested medium struggling between art and politics and was primarily used either to serve ideology or to object it
Solidarity with their fellow countrymen and highlighted and discussed these matters through their showed solidarity theira fellow countrymen andGerman highlighted andDavid discussed these matters through works, in order towith create substitute discourse. Bathrick claims that this their works, in order to create a substitute discourse. Bathrick claims that this substitute public sphere was on the one hand able “to break into or establish dialogue with the substitute public sphere was on theon one hand able
Summary
In the German Democratic Republic (GDR) photography was a contested medium struggling between art and politics and was primarily used either to serve ideology or to object it. Associated with humanism, because of photography’s ‘objective’ character, by both party officials and the people, documentary style photography played a crucial role in this ambivalence (James 2013, p.104; Hoffmann and Knapp 1987). The Socialist Unity Party (SED), made use of photography’s claim to veracity and manipulated images to present a world in which socialism had already been achieved. Walter Ulbricht, the SED’s first secretary who stayed in power until 1971, sought to use the medium as a conveyor of “harmony, passion, and the appreciation for socialist life” (Betts 2010, p.197), if need be, by means of image manipulation. 22 of instrument and as a design tool to illustrate texts for which this realistic form was pivotal cf Heft 9, design. Tool, to1954; illustrate for which this realistic form was pivotal der cf Heft. Rehberg et al.2012, p
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