Conversation with photographer Ute Mahler

Linda Conze, curator of the exhibition, talks to Ute Mahler about the creation of the picture cycle EIN DORF (A Village): They discuss how things change or remain almost absurdly the same, and how different the perspectives of different photographers can be on the same subject.
The artist Ute Mahler is the youngest of three photographers from one family. Over a period of 70 years, all three have photographed the development and change of a village in Thuringia.
Ute Mahler graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig in 1974 and has been working as a freelance photographer ever since. She first became known for her work for the GDR fashion magazine Sibylle, later photographing for numerous national and international magazines.
In 1990, she founded the renowned OSTKREUZ agency with six East German photographers.
In addition to commissioned work and teaching at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences and the Ostkreuz School, she has always pursued her own artistic projects, since 2008 together with her husband, photographer Werner Mahler. She has received numerous awards for her photographic work. Most recently, she and Werner Mahler received the Culture Prize of the German Society for Photography (DGPh) in 2023 and the Federal Cross of Merit in 2024.