Do Not Refreeze brings together a group of photographers whose extraordinary contribution to European photography has been 'frozen out' by the Cold War. Almost completely unknown in Britain, these artists developed their practice in the former East Germany negotiating the omnipresent secret police to create imagery which is increasingly being compared to luminaries such as Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange and Robert Frank.
Disparate in background and experience, their works use an unforgiving documentary aesthetic to convey both the harsh realities and remarkable richness of life behind the Iron Curtain. These stunning images give a glimpse of day-to day life and evoke the claustrophobia, rage, envy and ideological pomp of the Communist era as well as the unexpected personal warmth, tenderness and exoticism to be found throughout the socialist commonwealth.
The exhibition catalogue is available from our Gallery Bookshop at the special price of £12.95 for the duration of the exhibition.
Do Not Refreeze is a touring exhibition from the University of Hertfordshire Galleries. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Arts Council England, and IFA - the German Government's Institute for Foreign Relations. With support from Goethe Institut, Manchester and Staatliche Galerie, Moritzburg Halle, Landeskunstmuseum, Saxony-Anhalt. Do Not Refreeze coincides with LOOK 07, a city-wide photography festival taking place in April 07.