Sibylle Bergemann. Photographien

About

The social context was always a key factor in Bergemann’s work as in her critical analysis of reality during the times of the GDR. In the late 1960s, she worked in Berlin, and later in New York, Paris, Tokyo and São Paulo. For many years she worked with Polaroids and up to 1990 almost always in black and white, after which she was one of only a few photographers who used colour as a constitutive element of her works.

"With her pictures between dream and social reality, she made photographic history. Some of her photographs have become icons and will survive time as an important part of German imagery… [she] was a master of composition and the conscious use of color, who mastered various styles of photography, whether documentary or portrait, fashion, essay or landscape. Through her educational work she has influenced a whole generation of young photographers. At her home in Berlin-Mitte, GDR colleagues and internationally renowned photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton and Robert Frank came together. She was a photographer who, in an often individualistic profession, was always looking for community and fellowship.' (OSTKREUZ)

After the reunification of Germany, Bergemann co-founded the OSTKREUZ agency and became a member of the Academy of Arts.