“Officially, there were no depressed or unhappy people in the GDR.” -- Harald Hauswald, observer, witness, and chronicler of life in the GDR
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Drop by the Goethe Pop Up Seattle during the Capitol Hill Art Walk for the opening of
Totally East, an exhibition that powerfully portrays everyday life in the GDR. Harald Hauswald’s photos hint at stories of loneliness, authority, and rebellion along with moments of endearment and serenity.
Harald Hauswald, born in 1954 in Radebeul, completed his training in photography in Dresden and moved to East Berlin in 1977, where he later became a founding member of the renowned OSTKREUZ photographer agency. In the eighties, he walked the city’s streets and pointed his camera at what someone with a less discerning eye would probably pass by: lonely and elderly people, couples in love, dissidents of the punk movements, soccer hooligans, and young people in churches, standing up for peace and environmental protection.
The exhibition at the Goethe Pop Up comprises of 20 exhibition panels with a wide selection of Hauswald’s known and less known photographs accompanied by texts from Stefan Wolle, Head of Research at the GDR Museum in Berlin, who, like the photographer, grew up in the GDR. Each panel is equipped with QR codes that link to short video interviews with the photographer who reports on the historical context of the respective photograph.
Back
