MELIS, Roger - In einem stillen Land: Fotografien 1965-1989 - 3RD PRINT RUN (2009)!

Background information

“With a selection of his best photographs from twentyfive years, Roger MELIS is the first photographer from the East to paint a comprehensive portrait of the GDR and its inhabitants in this book ‘In einem stillen Land’. The atmospherically dense, often symbolic images soberly and critically illuminate everyday life, the working and living conditions and the political rituals in real socialism. They take us through the landscapes, villages and towns between the Baltic Sea, the Harz Mountains and the Ore Mountains and through his home town of Berlin.

Content

The pictures in the photographic volume 'In einem stillen Land' (In a Silent Land) by Roger MELIS bear witness to the skepticism and resignation of the East Germans, but also to their pride, their spirit of contradiction and their longings. Almost two decades after the fall of the GDR, an inside view of this 'quiet country' has emerged that is second to none.” (Publisher's text, © Lehmstedt, 2009)

Reception

• “Images of everyday life in the GDR that consciously distance themselves from the spectacular or the staging of totality.” (© Klaus Rek, in: Die Horen, 2014, No. 256)
  “A volume of photos, each of which is a short story.” (© Christoph Hein, in: FAZ)
  “There is hardly a more beautiful, no truer book about the defunct GDR. Melis combines the recording rigor of an August SANDER with the graceful artistic attention of a CARTIER-BRESSON for the sensations of everyday life.” (© Peter von Becker, in: Tagesspiegel)

About German photographer, Roger MELIS (1940-2009)

Photo books by as well as with works by Roger MELIS