At the Center of the Periphery: East Berlin and the Face Value of Photo Books

Keynote Lecture as part of the photo-historical seminar “Centers and Peripheries: Photography’s Geography Lessons"

Public event without registration
Date: Mar 20, 2025
Time: 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
Speaker: Steffen Siegel
Location: Villino Stroganoff, Via Gregoriana 22, 00187 Rome and online
Contact: sanchez@biblhertz.it

At the Center of the Periphery: East Berlin and the Face Value of Photo Books

The East German state, the German Democratic Republic, fashioned itself as a “Leseland” or a “land of reading.” A diversified field of publishing houses and an immense book production, sometimes with remarkably high print runs, may justify such an image. Yet, many of these publications did not address the eyes of the reader but the beholder—in the form of photographically illustrated books. Unsurprisingly, Berlin, the capital of the East German state, was among the most prominent subjects.

When we open these books today, we encounter twisted iconographies that try to narrate a progressive new society but neglect the half-city’s Cold War conditions. Yet, a few publications circumvent such biased interests. Yet, a few publications circumvent such biased interests. Taking the book “Berlin. Ein Reiseverführer” (Berlin. A Travel Seducer) as a point of departure, I will ask about the intricate face value of photo books from East German publishing houses.

Steffen Siegel has been a professor for the theory and history of photography at Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen (Germany) since 2015. At Folkwang, he is the director of the master's program "Photography Studies and Research" and the doctoral program for the history of photography. Since 2024, he has been the chairman of the Essen Center of Photography. He is the co-editor of two special issues, resulting from study courses at the Bibliotheca Hertziana: "Circulating Photographs“ (History of Photography, 1/2021, with Maria Antonella Pelizzari) and „Archival Absences: An Incomplete History of Photography“ (forthcoming in Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 4/2025, with Elizabeth Otto).

Online partecipation possible through our Vimeo Channel: https://vimeo.com/event/4948130

Scientific Organization: Organized and led by Tatjana Bartsch (Bibliotheca Hertziana), Luke Gartlan (University of St Andrews), Johannes Röll (Bibliotheca Hertziana), and Steffen Siegel (Folkwang University of the Arts, Essen)

Please be aware that the Photo-Historical Seminar “Centers and Peripheries: Photography’s Geography Lessons" is not open to public.