Bilderwald

Photobooks & photography in the mix.

Helga Paris: für uns

About The Book

This publication accompanies the landmark exhibition für uns (for us) by Helga Paris and marks the most comprehensive presentation of her work to date — an expansive homage to one of East Germany’s most significant photographic voices. A central figure in the cultural landscape of once-divided Berlin, Helga Paris (1938–2024) is renowned for her raw, empathetic portraits of everyday life in the GDR. Her black-andwhite photographs move with quiet power — capturing streets, homes, factories, and above all, people — with deep sensitivity and respect. Spanning her career from the 1960s through the period of reunification, this volume gathers her most iconic series alongside lesser-known bodies of work and personal snapshots. Publisher’s Info

Gallery 01

Helga Paris - für uns - Bilderwald Blog — 10_ Helga Paris. Selbstportrait, Berlin, 1968 © Nachlass Helga Paris

Gallery 02

About The Artist

Helga Paris (German, 1938–2024) studied fashion design in East Berlin starting in 1958. She began taking photographs seriously in 1967, after she had taught herself photography from the early 1960s onwards. Between 1967 and 1968 she chose to work as an assistant in a photo-lab, and started working as a freelance photographer immediately afterwards. She found her subjects in her immediate surroundings and is best known for documenting everyday life in the GDR. Between 1983 and 1985 she documented the social atmosphere and architectural dilapidation in Halle, Saale in a series called Buildings and Faces: Halle. In the 1990s she traveled extensively, always photographing. Since 1996 she has been a member of the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts), Berlin and has been appointed to teach at the Fachhochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft (University of Applied Sciences) Berlin.