Leonore Schwarzer
This exclusive online photo exhibition showcases the work of Berlin photographer Leonore Schwarzer and her ability to capture the life of East Berliners in multifaceted images.
She completed her photography training in 1982, after which she did commissioned work for companies in Berlin. By that time, as the “head of the people’s artistic creative work“ she had already become the head of photography groups at various art centres and had been working as a freelance photographer in her free time.
For the construction staff of the “Passage Friedrichstadt”, Leonore Schwarzer documented the state of the surrounding Mitte district neighbourhoods from 1985 onwards.
She would assist him at his East Berlin photo agency, where she worked as a photographer, assistant, lab assistant, manager and model.
Part of the collection since 2018
Leonore Schwarzer’s photographic work was donated to the Stadtmuseum Berlin in 2018. It consists of 17,000 negatives and slides, as well as 2,600 prints made by hand from the 1960’s to the 1990’s.
The range of motifs in her work is reflected in street scenes, working environments, celebrations, cultural events, fashion shows, as well as landscapes and portraits. It provides a personal, natural, somewhat different insight into the everyday life of people in the eastern part of Germany, which also reflects Schwarzer’s multifaceted life in the GDR.
Thanks to
The cooperation with the Berlin University of Applied Sciences, Museology Department, for the Foto-Grafische Kabinett at the Märkisches Museum