As a co-founder of the photographers’ agency OSTKREUZ, Hauswald is one of the most important figures in German photography.
The images shown in Harald Hauswald. Voll das Leben! are invaluable as visual documents of East and West German history.
Publisher: Steidl 2020
Headerphoto: Deserters, May 1 Demonstration, Alexanderplatz, Mitte, Berlin, 1987 © 2020 Harald Hauswald / OSTKREUZ
Colorful punks, hippies, and kissing couples in a sea of Trabi cars, flapping flags carried by demonstrators at Alexanderplatz in East Berlin, tipsy drinkers at their local pubs and law-abiding citizens waiting patiently at bus stops: Harald Hauswald’s gaze is authentic and tender. His images radiate a sympathy for the objects and people he photographs, preserving their dignity and setting them apart from the surrounding decay.
Publisher’s Info
Voll das Leben by Harald Hauswald published by Steidl September 2020 | Edited by Felix Hoffmann | 408 pages, 280 images |
Half-linen | 24 x 30 cm | German / English | ISBN 978-3-95829-720-3 | 2. Edition 12/2021. Available here.
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Harald Hauswald (b. 1954 in Radebeul, Saxony) is one of the most eminent East German photographers. Together with Sibylle Bergemann, Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler, and others, he founded OSTKREUZ – Agentur der Fotografen, a photographer-run agency.
After completing a traineeship to become a photographer, Hauswald moved to East Berlin in 1978, where he worked as a telegram carrier in Prenzlauer Berg and for the Stephanus Foundation, among other jobs. From the early 1980s, he regularly published photo-essays in West German periodicals including GEO, Stern, Zitty, and taz, at first using a pseudonym and later under his own name.
His work has been shown in over 250 solo exhibitions across Germany, the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, and has been published in diverse publications on East Berlin and everyday life in the GDR. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1997) and the Einheitspreis – Bürgerpreis zur Deutschen Einheit (Citizens’ Award for German Unity, 2006).
Harald Hauswald lives and works in Berlin.
Exhibition: Harald Hauswald Voll das Leben! Reloaded at C/O Berlin Foundation (Dec 11, 2021 – Apr 21, 2022)
Video: Harald Hauswald. Voll das Leben! The Making-of . Dokumentarfilm von C/O Berlin × Steidl
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