ZIMMERMANN, Harf - Hufelandstrasse. 1055 Berlin

Background information

"The photo volume 'Hufelandstrasse, 1055 Berlin' by German phootgrapher Harf ZIMMERMANN is a 1986–87 portrait of the people and places of Hufelandstrasse, a bustling neighborhood street in the heart of communist East Germany.  Inspired by Bruce DAVIDSON’s East 100th Street (1970), his radical depiction of life on a block in East Harlem, ZIMMERMANN set about documenting Hufelandstrasse where he also lived at the time. For over a year, ZIMMERMANN photographed almost daily on the street with his large-format camera, patiently asking shop-owners and residents if he could take their picture. Hufelandstrasse was then home to a cross-section of citizens of the German Democratic Republic, as well as many family-run stores and workshops―from bakeries and cobblers, to a pet shop and even an atelier for repairing women’s stockings―an uncanny concentration of private business which had otherwise been fazed out by the communist state.

Content

This photogarphic volume, 'Hufelandstrasse, 1055 Berlin' comprises black-and-white outdoor photos of buildings and groups of people, as well as a number of more intimate color images of families in their apartments. 'Hufelandstrasse, 1055 Berlin' is an historical document beyond nostalgia of life under a regime in agony." (Steidl Verlag, 2017)

About German photographer, Harf ZIMMERMANN (b.1955)

Photo books by Harf ZIMMERMANN