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Unforgettable women of the GDR: Isabel Kittler shows her life stories!
Isabel Kittler shows portraits of GDR women in Uckermark, sheds light on their lives and is planning an accompanying book.
Unforgettable women of the GDR: Isabel Kittler shows her life stories!
Isabel Kittler, a committed teacher and photographer from the Uckermark, will soon reach her sixth decade. Two children and working with problem students shape her everyday life. She also takes up creative projects and has developed an impressive series of portraits at the “Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie”. This series is dedicated to the lives of women who were born and socialized in the GDR and aims to shed light on their often overlooked stories. How Northern Courier reported, the first exhibition of these impressive portraits took place in Berlin in October.
Through Kittler's lenses we see women who have experienced social disruption and were strongly influenced by it. The moments she captures are not only a powerful testimony to these experiences, but also give the protagonists a voice that is often missing from public memory. When researching this project, Kittler also brought two Uckermark women, Rita Zepf and Ulrike Liehm, into conversation to tell their stories and allow viewers to look behind the scenes of the past.
Powerful stories and perspectives
Kittler plans to combine the portraits in a book that will include photos as well as texts and quotes from the women. In doing so, she wants to make an important topic visible and focus on the resilience of women. To cover the production costs of her book, she started a crowdfunding campaign. This shows that she is not only a creative mind, but also a pragmatic doer who wants to turn the project into reality.
The lives of women in the GDR were diverse and characterized by many social challenges. A look at the developments of this time shows that the role of women is often presented one-sidedly, like the platform bpb thematised. Often only the image of the tractor driver and supporter is highlighted, while the complex reality of women in the GDR is not sufficiently acknowledged. Despite the possibility of gainful employment, numerous housework and child-rearing tasks remained almost exclusively women's responsibility.
However, this does not work without resistance and stubbornness, which is visible in many biographies of the women affected. The challenges and opportunities they faced are addressed in Kittler's work, showing that thinking outside the box is often necessary to understand real history.
So what remains of the women who were born during this particular time? Kittler's project offers a valuable contribution to answering this question. It opens dialogues about memories, identity and the often hidden stories in GDR history. It will certainly be a captivating and enriching work for history buffs and photography enthusiasts.