Goethe Scenes

Adieu, My Officer

They are the black and white relicts of faded times: the pictures by Mahmoud Dabdoud, which are now being presented by the Goethe-Institut in Ramallah. The native of Lebanon’s passion for photography led him to Leipzig in the 1980s, where he ultimately developed his very unique perspective of the “little guy” at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst. He lovingly captured the sometimes-whimsical attitudes of the coal bearers, lorry drivers and street workers in the GDR in his camera lens and preserved them for posterity. Holding ladylove close, even the casual pioneers are fanned by the charm of nostalgia.