Evelyn Richter

Evelyn Richter (31 January 1930 – 10 October 2021) was a German art photographer known primarily for social documentary photography work in East Germany. She is notable for her black & white photography in which she documented working-class life, and which often showed influences of Dadaism and futurism. Her photography is focused on people in everyday life, including children, workers (especially women), artists and musicians.

She taught photography both at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, where she had studied, from 1981, as in the 1990s, at the Fachhochschule in Bielefeld. Her work became known internationally only after German reunification.

She received awards such as the Culture Award from the German Society for Photography, the Art Prize of Dresden, and the Bernd und Hilla Becher-Preis for her life's work.

Life and work Richter was born in Bautzen

After completing a photographic apprenticeship in Dresden

Richter worked as a freelance photographer, An exhibition of her works was held in 2010 on the occasion of her 80th birthday at the Leonhardimuseum Dresden. In 2020, she was the first recipient of the Bernd und Hilla Becher-Preis of Düsseldorf for her life's work. The jury noted: In her work, she [Evelyn Richter] explores the field of documentary in a new way: Inspired by the new international social photography, Richter focuses on people and their living environments unembellished and with empathy. As a visual chronicler, she focuses on East German working and everyday worlds, moves through public space with her camera and repeatedly captures intimate moments. The photographer, who has constantly expanded her photographic radius, especially after 1990, never succumbs to the temptation to reduce the world to unambiguity. Rather, she provides access to its complexity and enables viewers to get close to things. In her openness and unapproachability lies the great topicality of Evelyn Richter's photographic attitude. in a nursing home where she had lived for eight years after a stroke.

Publications Publications by Richter Arrested Time = Stillgehaltene Zeit. Heidelberg: Braus, 2002. Edited by Astrid Ihle. . With a text by Matthias Flg̈ge. In German and English. Catalogue published "on the occasion of the Evelyn Richter exhibition in the Goethe Institute in Washington DC, from November 6, 2002 until January 10, 2003, and in the Leica Gallery in New York City from January 30, 2003 to March 1, 2003".

Publications with contributions by Richter Wer War Wer in der DDR? Berlin: Links, 2010. By Helmut Müller-Enbergs. .

Awards 1975: Ehrenpreis für Fotografie des Kulturbundes der DDR 1997: Villa Massimo 2006: Kunstpreis der Landeshauptstadt Dresden (Art prize of the state capital of Dresden)

Group exhibitions 2010: Eros und Stasi. Ostdeutsche Fotografie Sammlung Gabriele Koenig, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen. 2012/2013: The Shuttered Society: Art Photography in the GDR 1949-1989, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin.

Explanatory notes