Sibylle Bergemann was a leading contemporary German photographers whose works are astonishingly diverse, covering subjects such as fashion, reportage, photographic essays, urban and rural landscapes and portraits.

The social context was always a key factor in Bergemann’s work as in her critical analysis of reality during the times of the GDR. In the late 1960s, she worked in Berlin, and later in New York, Paris, Tokyo and São Paulo. For many years she worked with Polaroids and up to 1990 almost always in black and white, after which she was one of only a few photographers who used colour as a constitutive element of her works. 

"With her pictures between dream and social reality, she made photographic history. Some of her photographs have become icons and will survive time as an important part of German imagery. She was a master of composition and the conscious use of color, who mastered various styles of photography, whether documentary or portrait, fashion, essay or landscape. Through her educational work she has influenced a whole generation of young photographers. At her home in Berlin-Mitte, GDR colleagues and internationally renowned photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Helmut Newton and Robert Frank came together. She was a photographer who, in an often individualistic profession, was always looking for community and fellowship." (OSTKREUZ Photo Agency)

Image Credit: Sibylle Bergemann