Gerhard Kiesling

Gerhard Kiesling (born May 27, 1922 in Greiz ; † March 22, 2016 in Berlin ) was a German theater and press photographer.

Life

Kiesling's father was an ambitious amateur photographer and also got his son enthusiastic about photography. In 1941 he began studying law at the University of Leipzig . In 1942 he was called up for military service, in 1945 he returned to Greiz. Since it was not possible to resume studies at this time, he initially worked as a legal assistant.

In 1946 Kiesling registered as a freelance theater and press photographer in Greiz. He earned his living with small jobs, photographed theater productions and factories and was paid in kind for this. What he didn't need himself, he exchanged for photo material and devices on the Berlin black market . In 1948 he decided not to continue his law degree, which he had broken off in 1942, to work as a photo reporter instead. He tried to move to Berlin; In Charlottenburg , where he had found an abandoned studio, people waved it off, in Pankow two boxes of Camel cigarettes led to their destination. Kiesling subsequently took photos at all theaters and opera houses in all of Berlin and offered his pictures freely. His photos were particularly popular with Neue Berliner Illustrierte (NBI). In May 1949, Lilly Becher , then editor-in-chief of the NBI, offered him a job . Becher liked Kiesling's gaze, and she was looking for a replacement for the photo reporters Fritz Eschen and Gerhard Gronefeld , who lived in western Berlin and were no longer able to work for the NBI after the blockade of the western sectors.

Meeting in the youth village Oelsnitz (1951)

Kiesling began his work at NBI together with Horst E. Schulze . Especially against this background, Kiesling was recognized as a worker photographer in the GDR for a long time . Thanks to his connection with the NBI, he was now able to do without “emergency assignments”. From then on, numerous recordings of politicians (e.g. Walter Ulbricht , Hilde Benjamin , Erich Honecker ), actors (e.g. Wolf Kaiser , Gérard Philipe , Marlene Dietrich ), scientists, farmers, artists (e.g. Otto Nagel , Lea Grundig in her studio, John Heartfield ), workers and factories. His knowledge as a color photographer was in demand beyond the NBI. In the 1950s he traveled to Albania and China , in the 1960s to England and the Soviet Union , in the 1970s to the Netherlands and West Berlin . Extensive and sensitive photo reports were created. Work colleagues at the NBI included Gert Prokop, Peter Leske, Werner Schulze, Joachim Mollenschott, who became Kiesling's editor in the 1970s. Kiesling worked mostly with a Rolleiflex (6 × 6 cm), but also with a Leica 35mm camera with a range finder.

From the mid-seventies onwards, NBI's orders for the freelancer Kiesling began to decrease. The young and loyal university graduates from Leipzig pushed their way into his place. Kiesling also began to work for the magazine Der Neuerer and, together with writing colleagues, brought out several travel illustrated volumes and very successful Berlin books (e.g. 1967 Berlin, capital of the GDR with texts by Ingeborg and Erik Hühns, which eight until 1978 Circulations totaling more than 140,000 copies, or in 1985 Berlin with a text by Christel Foerster). From 1985 Gerhard Kiesling withdrew more and more into retirement. In 1986 the Berlin Photo Gallery at Helsingforser Platz showed the Photo: Gerhard Kiesling exhibition with 220 black and white photos , which could then be seen in Moscow. In 1996 Kiesling handed over his entire photo archive with all rights to the Photo Agency for Art, Culture and History (bpk). On the occasion of his 80th birthday, the picture agency bpk showed the exhibition On behalf of the NBI - Gerhard Kiesling with a selection of 72 black and white and 36 color photos (text: Martin Heying, 2002).

Awards

• Art Prize of the GDR (1987)

Web links

Commons : Gerhard Kiesling  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Gerhard Kiesling in the catalog of the German National Library
• German photo library