Book review of an interesting German photo book.
Last week we had a friend arrive back from a working stint in Germany, he picked up a photographic book by Roger Melis called, “In einen stillen Land”, Fotografien 1965 – 1989. He bought it in either Berlin or Leipzig, don’t know which.
The photographer was born in 1940 in Berlin and this book is his personal set of pictures taken between those above dates. It is a very good book for photojournalism ideas. In fact, it is photojournalism in very pure form.
There are about 170 pages of pictures in the 192 page hardcover book. The pictures are quite provoking as they show a life that virtually all of us who grew up in the more democratic countries, never experienced.
On page 32-33 which is a double page spread the caption says it all:- “Christinenstrasse, Berlin, um 1975”. The picture shows the typical 5 story buildings of Europe but the buildings show no signs of repair since the end of WWII. It is possible to see the damage in certain sections of the buildings as bullet marks, they may not be, but they do look like bullet markings.
The front cover picture, which you can see by going to,
www.lehmstedt.de is on page 41 and simply says, “Rummel an der Michangelostrasse, Berlin, 1969.
On page 35 there is a very good picture showing very well dressed, higher ranking military men, one of which looks as though he enjoys his position in life quite well. Behind them is a collection of trucks with what looks like rocket launchers loaded on them. The caption is:- “Parade zum 8. Mai, Gertraudenstrasse, Berlin, 1965”.
There are lots of very good pictures throughout the book that show life in the DDR, quite an interesting array in fact.
The book is published by Lehmstedt Verlag, Leipzig 2007 the ISBN is 9783-3-937146-52-2
Mick.
Photographic book about the DDR 
Linear Mode
