»Town and Country and Dogs« - in front of the lens of Sibylle Bergemann

Starting June 24, the Berlinische Galerie in Berlin-Kreuzberg takes a retrospective look at the work of one of Germany's best-known photographers: Sibylle Bergemann. Town and Country and Dogs. Photographs 1966 – 2010 shows a selection of over 200 photographs, 30 of which have never been published before.

She was never set in her ways: city, fashion, and portrait photographs are as much a part of Sibylle Bergemann's (1941-2010) life's work as essayistic reportages. Nevertheless, some motifs, such as the city, women, or dogs, recur time and again. Her wanderlust drove her to photograph metropolises such as Dakar, Moscow, New York, and Paris. Last but not least, Bergemann lent great significance to her hometown of Berlin: for decades, she captured the city's history and »subtly translates seemingly contradictory things into poetic beauty.« She always stretched her artistic autonomy just far enough to circumvent the GDR's publication bans.

Because fashion was also a major theme of her work, she regularly attracted women to her lens - including actresses, artists, authors, and mannequins. Her intention: »to bring reality into the pictures,« she is said to have said herself in 1994. In the run-up to the exhibition, the Berlinische Galerie aroused the curiosity of all those to whom the photographer was previously unknown with portraits of personalities such as Nina and Eva Maria Hagen or Katharina Thalbach. The exhibition also focuses on Bergemann's new start: After the Wende, from 1990, she continued her career as a photojournalist. She produced photo reports for the magazine GEO and traveled to Yemen, Mali, and Portugal, for example. Until October 10, the Berlinische Galerie is showing a very promising survey that makes Sibylle Bergemann's multifaceted talent accessible to the public.