Helga Paris
Berlin
27 April–17 June 2017
Between Bridges is pleased to announce Berlin, an exhibition of Helga Paris’ photographs taken between 1969 and 1982.
Since the late 1950s, Helga Paris (*1938, Gollnow) has lived in Berlin, residing in Prenzlauer Berg in the 1960s, where she lives until today. Committing to photography in 1967, the self-taught Paris devoted a major part of her attention to her immediate surroundings: East Berlin.
On display at Between Bridges is Berlin, 1972-1982/Mappe 3, one of seven portfolios collectively entitled Das Mappenwerk, which Paris compiled from her own photographs in 2010. The 17 silver gelatin prints of Mappe 3 are accompanied by one further, additional work, Maedchen mit Kohl, 1969. Assembled by the artist into standardised frames, the prints themselves, sometimes paired, are held in place with simple, transparent photo corners.
Central to Paris’ oeuvre is the portrayal of people. For Berlin, Paris brings together images of her friends, family and neighbours, pictured within their shared environment: at work, at home, during social events. We see familiar scenes including group family shots, young boys and girls, adults drinking as well as innocuous Berlin street views, and a dog in the snow. With an acutely personal and often intimate sensibility, Helga Paris chronicles the quotidian activity of a now bygone Germany.
Paris has exhibited widely at venues including Akademie der Kuenste and Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Kunsthalle Malmoe, among many others. In 2004 she was awarded the Hannah-Hoech-Preis.
