Leipzig is distinguished by a long tradition of social documentary photography. It was not until the late 1970s, however, that these pictures became visible to the public in exhibitions, journals and books. Especially in the 1950s, photographers were faced with a rigid canon of motifs and strict political control. Nevertheless, from the beginning they aimed their cameras at different faces of the city.
The exhibition 1950–1980. Photography from Leipzig offers both a history of the city in pictures and a history of photography on the path to artistic independence — told in light of selected photographs by Ursula Arnold, F. O. Bernstein, Willy Gursky, Evelyn Richter, Thomas Steinert and Karin Wieckhorst.
