Helga Paris was born in 1938 into the chaotic German landscape shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. She was still a child when the conflict forced her family to leave their home and settle in a small town south of Berlin. With her mother and sister at home with her, while her father and two brothers were still at the front, Paris found herself immersed in the familiar surroundings of a large and welcoming community of women.

With the advent of the Cold War, Paris emerged as one of the leading photographic chroniclers of everyday life in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Her first book, Gesichter. Frauen in der DDR. Fotoportraits, is a series of intimate and compelling portraits of East German women in their everyday surroundings.

Gesichter. Frauen in der DDR. Fotoportraits, this title is groundbreaking, as the female experience of “being in the world” has always been a central theme for Helga Paris. Ramona, the girl in the cardigan and plaid skirt; the state-employed seamstresses in their aprons; the elderly woman with the enigmatic feather in her hat; the women laughing in the “Berlin Pubs” series; or all the beauties of the “Georgia” series: none of these women appears to be posing or following instructions.

Nothing seems staged or contrived. None of them seeks to please, seduce, or provoke.