Sibylle Bergemann (29 August 1941 – 1 November 2010) was a German photographer. In 1990, she co-founded the Ostkreuz photographers agency. She is remembered for documenting developments in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as West Berlin. From 13 August 1961 u ...

during the Communist era and for her international assignments for ''

Stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...

'' and later for '' Geo.''

Early life

Bergemann completed clerical training in East Berlin between 1958 and 1960. She developed an interest in photography while working on the editorial staff of the East German entertainment periodical ''Das Magazin''. In 1966 she began to study photography under the photographer and university teacher Arno Fischer, who became her lifelong partner.

Career as photographer

After first contributing to leading East German periodicals of the time, ''Das Magazin'' and ''Sonntag'', in the early 1970s, her photographs started to appear in the women's fashion magazine ''Sibylle'' where she soon developed her own style. Her portraits were not analytical but rather descriptive, showing people as they appeared in real life. She moved on from fashion to photograph first her own country, East Germany, and later the rest of the world. In 1990, together with

Ute Mahler Ute Mahler (née Schirmer; born 1949) is a German photographer. In 1990 she and her husband Werner Mahler were two of the seven co-founders of the . Between 2000 and 2015, she was a professor of photography at Hamburg University of Applied Scie ...

and Harald Hauswald, she founded the Ostkreuz agency, which now represents a score of photographers. Perhaps Bergemann's most important legacy is the series of black-and-white photographs she took of everyday life in East Germany as it evolved over the years. Later, she compiled photographic reportages about New York City, Tokyo, Paris and

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

; and even more recently, turning from black and white to colour, she travelled through Africa and Asia on assignments for '' Geo''.

Recognition

In 1994, Bergemann's talent was recognized when she became a member of

Academy of Arts, Berlin The Academy of Arts (german: Akademie der Künste) is a state arts institution in Berlin, Germany. The task of the Academy is to promote art, as well as to advise and support the states of Germany. The Academy's predecessor organization was fo ...

. In 2007, she held an exhibition of her work at the Museum für Photographie in

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

. The

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

in New York City holds twelve prints by Bergemann.

Publications

Publication by Bergemann

*''Polaroids.'' Berlin: Hatje Cantz, 2011. . With texts by Jutta Voigt, Bernd Heise, Frieda von Wild, and Arno Fischer. In German and English.

Publications with contributions by Bergemann

This list is not complete. * ''Die Stadt. Vom Werden und Vergehen / The City. Becoming and Decaying.'' Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2010. . In German and English. * ''Ostzeit. Geschichten aus einem vergangenen Land / Stories from a Vanished Country.'' Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2010. . In German and English.

Exhibitions

* 2019–20 Medea Insurrection: Radical Women Artists Behind the Iron Curtain

References

External links

Bergemann at Ostkreuz

. Goethe Institut. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bergemann, Sibylle 1941 births 2010 deaths East German photographers East German women German women photographers Photographers from Berlin 20th-century German photographers 21st-century German photographers 20th-century women photographers 21st-century women photographers 20th-century German women 21st-century German women