Ein Dorf 1950–2022. Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler und Ludwig Schirmer | Eröffnung

In the organizer's words:

The exhibition "A Village 1950-2022" is a long-term project by three photographers. The project focuses on the Thuringian village of Berka and yet points far beyond its borders. In the 1950s, Ludwig Schirmer, the father of photographer Ute Mahler, was a master miller in Berka. As a self-taught photographer, he began to document everyday life, festivals and his own life.

Without knowing his father-in-law's pictures, Ute's husband Werner Mahler decided to photograph his diploma thesis in Berka in 1977. A good 20 years later, in 1998, the magazine Der Stern asked him for an update, but it was never published. Ute Mahler photographed Berka in 2021/22. As a family follow-up, she created a personal work about a home village.

All four works with over 120 photographs pose questions about continuity and change, about home, childhood, moving away and coming back, old and new, the familiar and the unfamiliar.

The exhibition was curated by Marit Lena Herrmann.

As part of the EMOP Berlin - European Month of Photography 2025

Parallel to "Ein Dorf 1950-2022", Galerie Springer is hosting the exhibition "Farbenrausch" with rarely shown color photographs by Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler and Ludwig Schirmer.
Opening: 1.3., duration: 4.3. - 19.7.2025