Kehrer Verlag has announced the release of "Helga Paris: für uns," a comprehensive publication dedicated to one of East Germany's most significant photographic voices. The book accompanies the exhibition of the same name by Helga Paris (1938-2024), which will be on display at Fotografiska Berlin from September 6, 2025, to January 25, 2026. "I have always only been interested in people," Paris once stated, a philosophy that consistently guided her artistic work throughout her distinguished career.
The publication provides extensive insights into Paris's impressive life's work, presenting key photographic series spanning five decades of her career. Among the highlights is the previously unpublished New York series, offering viewers a fresh perspective on the photographer's diverse body of work. The book serves as both a companion to the upcoming exhibition and a standalone tribute to Paris's enduring legacy in photography.
Paris established herself as a chronicler of her time through her honest, unembellished, and intimate photographs that captured the stories of people living within the collective system of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Her subjects included houses and street scenes, factory workers, garbage collectors, children, and ordinary citizens. Throughout her work, she consistently approached those she photographed with remarkable sensitivity and respect, creating images that transcended mere documentation.
Her photographs serve as more than just documents of the socialist era; they are portraits of closeness and dignity that capture the lived experience of that time period. Through her lens, Paris gave a face to those who were neglected in the official representation of the GDR, focusing on the human stories often overlooked by state propaganda. Her work demonstrates that it is precisely in the attention to seemingly insignificant details that the true power of documentary photography lies.
Paris's photography provides profound insights into an era and its various realities of life, reminding viewers that history is not only written by politicians but also lived in everyday life. Her images document life on streets, in factories, and in bars, capturing the experiences of people who carried their own struggles, hopes, and fears. This approach to photography created a more complete and honest record of life in East Germany than official sources typically provided.
The special publication features several unique elements that distinguish it from typical photography books. In addition to previously unpublished series and rarely shown photographs, it presents for the first time original texts that Helga Paris personally typed on a typewriter. These written pieces offer rare insights into her thoughts and creative process, filled with quiet irony, poetic clarity, and political sensitivity that mirror the multifaceted nature of her photographic work.
To enhance the viewer's experience with her self-portrait series, the book's pages have been elaborately crafted using an altar fold technique. This special presentation invites readers to immerse themselves in Helga Paris's life and actively explore her work in a more intimate and engaging way. The design choice reflects the personal nature of her photography and creates a tactile connection between the viewer and the artist's vision.
Udo Kittelmann, longtime Director of the National Gallery Berlin and curator of this exhibition alongside Marina Paulenka, Exhibitions Director at Fotografiska Berlin, emphasized the exhibition's deeper purpose in his essay foreword. "This exhibition is not a retrospective," they wrote. "It aims to be nothing less than an act of remembrance, solidarity, and gratitude. It honors a woman who dedicated her life to revealing the invisible and who, with the gentle click of her camera shutter, said: I see you."
Helga Paris was born in May 1938 in what is now Polish Gollnow and grew up near Berlin in Zossen. Her path to photography was unconventional, beginning with studies in fashion design at the Berlin School of Clothing from 1956 to 1960. Initially, she worked as a lecturer in costume design, as well as a graphic designer and photo lab technician, gaining technical skills that would later inform her photographic practice.
In the mid-1960s, Paris turned to photography through self-taught methods, developing her distinctive approach autodidactically. With her keen sensitivity to people and their everyday lives, she became a defining voice in East German photography, creating work that stood apart from both official state photography and typical Western documentary approaches of the time.
Paris's contributions to photography were formally recognized in 2004 when she was awarded the Hannah Höch Prize for her photographic life's work. This prestigious award acknowledged her significant impact on German photography and her unique perspective on documenting life in the GDR. Her complete archive, including all negatives, is now preserved by the Academy of Arts, ensuring that future generations will have access to this important historical and artistic record.
The book "Helga Paris: für uns" is published by Kehrer Verlag with texts by Udo Kittelmann, Helga Paris herself, and Marina Paulenka. The design was created by Kehrer Design, specifically Laura Pecoroni, reflecting the publisher's commitment to high-quality art book production. The hardcover edition measures 20 x 28.5 cm and contains 240 pages with 150 duotone illustrations.
Following its debut at Fotografiska Berlin, the exhibition will travel to other Fotografiska locations, including Fotografiska Tallinn during Spring-Summer 2026 and Fotografiska Stockholm in Fall 2026. This international tour will bring Paris's work to broader audiences across Europe, introducing new viewers to her powerful documentary photography and ensuring her legacy continues to reach contemporary audiences who can appreciate her unique perspective on 20th-century European history.
