The photographs in Scenes from Behind the Wall were created during an eight-day trip through East Germany in December and January 1989-90 during the waning days of Communism. This exhibition has traveled throughout the Commonweath of Virginia and has been exhibited at the Virginia Museum for Fine Arts in Richmond.  It has served as a vehicle for presenting sensitive and revealing views of a nation that was on the verge of reunification.  Photographs were taken by American photographer Page Chichester and Helmut Brinkman, a German photographer.  Travelogue/Dialogue was written by Page Chichester and Katharina Giebel-Chichester.  Katharina, an artist and West German native, composed the second part of the commentary in the catalogue as a recollection of growing up with memories of the Berlin Wall.

Scenes from Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989/90 exhibit opens Friday, February 3 and runs through Saturday, February 25th in the Hayloft Gallery. A reception and gallery walk will be held on February 4 from 2-4pm.  Barbara and Clemens von Claparede-Crola will conduct the gallery walk and discuss their first-hand experience of living in Germany during these trying times.

“Within this body of work there are many photographs that go beyond straightforward documentation.  Two images with great metaphorical qualities are the Children at the Wall, West Berlin and Stroll Through Connewitz.  In Stroll the entire background is filled with a decrepit building – ruins of the past loom large.  In contrast, a new baby carriage is briskly pushed down the street – the small, but certain, germination of democracy.  The war-ravaged building symbolizes the country’s past, while the baby carriage represents liberation and the future of Germany.” – Taken from the original brochure used for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Children at the Wall, West Berlin

Stroll Through Connewitz