Manfred Paul: Paris 1988

In 1988, Manfred Paul received an invitation for a six-week study trip to Paris. For a photographer from East Germany, this was a rare opportunity to explore a country beyond the Iron Curtain. He was able to borrow a Leica M3 from an employee of the French cultural center in Berlin. Through the optical viewfinder of this camera, he experienced Paris in a unique way, which profoundly changed his vision and photography. The 65 images in "Paris 1988" do not focus on the Paris of tourists; they are not a social-documentary exploration either, but rather a practice in postmodern seeing: against the totality, Paul sets the fragment; instead of waiting for the decisive moment, he is interested in the periphery of events. Surfaces, shop windows, the everyday signs and materialities of the urban environment—impressions that no longer coalesce into a complete picture, yet convey the atmosphere of that time: L'air de Paris. Manfred Paul, who has lived and worked in East Berlin since 1968, is considered one of the important representatives of author photography in East Germany.