Stephan Morgenstern

Around 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, we can look through Stephan Morgenstern's photography at a time, probably the most formative for Germany. For the magazine Spiegel, he documents everyday life in East Germany and the attitude towards life of the people during the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1990.

The social change that took place as a result of German reunification is of particular importance for the East. Stephan Morgenstern moved to Leipzig for two years and traveled all over the country from which his parents escaped with him in 1956 as a five-year-old: from Bautzen into the Allgäu, on to Hannover, and finally Lauffen am Neckar. His expressive black-and-white photos tell of decline, development and optimism, of the formative legacy of everyday life in the DDR, of hope for freedom, travel and consumption, but also of the loss of home and the dark sides of a past that has never been dealt with today casts its shadow.

Morgenstern made a very conscious decision to use black and white documentation. The countless nuances of gray in all its shades between white and black, the use of light and shadow, create much more complex and expressive images in which no color distracts and covers what is shown. Especially in times of digital photo technology with its unlimited possibilities, this design tool also brings the art of photography into focus.

Morgenstern is a precise observer. He patiently searches for the decisive scene with his camera, waits for the right moment that focuses everything that is essential and puts it in the spotlight in a spectacular way.