Stefan Moses
Schäferin, Priemen. Postzustellerin, Cottbus. Schlachter, Rostock. Köchin, Cottbus (Shepherdess in Priemen. Post lady in Cottbus. Butcher in Rostock. Cook in Cottbus.)
1990
4 gelatin silver prints, printed 1997. From 36.9 x 28.2 cm (39.9 x 30.7 cm) to 37.5 x 28 cm (40.3 x 30.6 cm). Each signed, dated, titled and with photographer's stamps on the verso. - Each matted.
In 1989 - nearly 30 years after his series on West Germans - Stefan Moses was now looking to portray the Germans again on his own initiative - this time in East Germany. “If the Germans, in the mid 60s, showed their self-confidence, which gradually increased after 1945, with an obvious sense for a particular presentation in front of the camera, and if they showed the liberation from the constraints of the postwar period, then the German figures and faces of the just defunct GDR glowed in the spirit of relief and liberation. It is as if they experienced themselves three-dimensionally for the first time, as actually existing persons and as self-determined human beings in time and space. They abound with self-regard and self-esteem.” (cited after Harald Eggebrecht, in: Ulrich Pohlmann/Matthias Harder (ed.), Stefan Moses. Die Monographie. Fotografien 1947 bis heute, exhib.cat. Fotomuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich 2002, p. 52f.).
Literature
Ulrich Pohlmann/Matthias Harder (ed.), Stefan Moses. Die Monographie. Fotografien 1947 bis heute, exhib.cat. Fotomuseum im Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich 2002, ill. pp. 59, 60, 63, 67 (4 images); Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (ed.), Stefan Moses. Deutsche Vita. Ein Bilderbuch, Passau 2006, ill. p. 124 and ill. on rear cover (1 image).