Caught : the art of photography in the German Democratic Republic / Karl Gernot Kuehn.

Main entry:

Kuehn, Karl Gernot, 1940-

Title & Author:

Caught : the art of photography in the German Democratic Republic / Karl Gernot Kuehn.

Publication:

Description:

xi, 305 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 291-298) and index.
Preface -- Prologue -- After "Zero" -- Photography as political icon -- Pioneers and backlash -- Revisionism and reform -- Juncture -- The Formation of the socialist conscience -- Collective reality -- Milestones -- Dissolution -- Beyond -- Pluralism -- Secrets and natural states -- Movement and the roder of chaos -- Memory observed -- tEpilogue.

Summary:

Behind the Iron Curtain, against all odds, photography flourished as an art in the German Democratic Republic. The many images in this volume amply demonstrate that fact while also providing an illustrated social history of a people "caught" in the conflicting dictates of ideology, artistic oppression, a troubled national past, and basic human desires. Karl Gernot Kuehn writes eloquently of East Germany from 1945 - four years before the socialist nation was officially carved out of the former German Reich - to 1989, when the government fell and forty years of isolation ended.
The rulers of the new nation, well aware of the power of photography and the extent to which it had served Hitler's regime, determined to use it in molding the paradigmatic socialist state. Although they could never agree on precisely how to use it, Kuehn says, they unanimously believed the decision was not one that people could make for themselves. Consequently, Walter Ulbricht, and Erich Honecker after him, decreed that the medium should shape and reflect the visual expression of Marxism. Censorship was ruthless, not only dictating what was acceptable in photography but also preventing serious research on East German work until 1989.
Caught offers the first in-depth look at the artistic and sociopolitical evolution of the GDR as seen through the eyes of the photographers who participated in it. In the 1980s, according to Kuehn, photography helped foment the "silent revolution." He gives special attention to some of the artists who illustrate the process of growing awareness and resulting social transformation that resulted in the final breakdown of collective concerns. What the cameras "caught" was intended all along to be evidence of socialism's success, but in the end this evidence exposed socialism as a myth.

Resources:
Table of contents
Contributor biographical information
Publisher description

ISBN:

0520204360 (cloth ; alk. paper)
9780520204362 (cloth ; alk. paper)

Subject:

Photography Germany (East) History 20th century.
Photographie Allemagne (Est) Histoire 20e siècle.
Photography
Fotografie.
Communisme.
Sociale geschiedenis.
Photography Germany (East)
Photographie Allemagne (République démocratique) Histoire.
Germany (East) History Pictorial works.
Allemagne (Est) Histoire Ouvrages illustrés.
Germany (East)

Form/genre:

illustrated books.
Illustrated works
History
Ouvrages illustrés.

Added entries:

Burger, Nola, book designer, bookjacket designer.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 179958
Call No.: ID TR73.1.K84; ID:98-B484
Status: Available

Actions:

Add to folder

Request these items

Email this list to yourself (or someone else)

Your folder is empty.

Please complete this form to make a request for consultation. A copy of this list will also be forwarded to you.

Your contact information

First name:

Last name:

Email:

Phone number:

Notes (optional):

We will contact you to set up an appointment. Please keep in mind that your consultation date will be based on the type of material you wish to study. To prepare your visit, we'll need:

— At least 2 weeks for primary sources (prints and drawings, photographs, archival documents, etc.)
— At least 48 hours for secondary sources (books, periodicals, vertical files, etc.)

Back to list

Submit