Rainer Dorndeck

Rainer Dorndeck (born February 17, 1941 in Bitterfeld , † March 10, 2011 in Leipzig ) was a German photographer.

Life

Rainer Dorndeck grew up in the industrial city of Bitterfeld during the war and post-war years. Characterized in the bourgeois-Christian family association, he and his older sister Christa experienced the expropriation of his parents' leather trading company. After the father went missing as a medic on the Eastern Front, his mother began to set up her own leather goods shop under difficult conditions. Even when he was a child, Rainer Dorndeck photographed small picture stories with portraits and landscapes using his father's still existing camera technology.

In 1954 he became a member of the photo circle of the newly built Kulturpalast Bitterfeld , where he became known for exhibitions, prizes and awards. After graduating from high school in 1959, he had to serve in the National People's Army in order to study. From 1961 to 1966 he studied photography at the renowned Leipzig University of Graphics and Book Art . There he received the academic diploma as a photographer and in 1969 became a member of the Association of Visual Artists (VBK) of the GDR. His freelance photographic activity was thus secured. After the German reunification he became a member of the Association of German Graphic Designers (BDG).

Rainer Dorndeck was first and second married to the teacher Wiebke and the child and youth educator Dagmar. He died of an incurable disease in Leipzig at the age of 70.

Training and work

During his photography studies at the University of Graphic Art and Book Art in Leipzig , he acquired in-depth knowledge of commercial graphics. With the best possible conditions, he began to work as a freelancer in the trade fair city of Leipzig. As a sought-after advertising and fashion photographer, Rainer Dorndeck worked continuously and primarily for the export and foreign trade of East German companies and combines that produced textile, leather and fur goods. He also photographed portrait and fashion photography for the Verlag für die Frau Leipzig and for the Fachbuchverlag Leipzig. In his free time he devoted himself to photo-documentary topics, long-term documentaries and landscape photography.

Own exhibitions (selection)

• 1974 - Leipzig, Leipzig Information - Sachsenplatz, Reportage-Mode-Akt
• 1984 - Leipzig, Galerie P - state art trade, “photo models private”, fashion and advertising in the context of nudes, long-term documentation 1970 to 1984
• 1984 - Borna, City Museum Torladen, "Photo models private" Mothers and Children - long-term documentation 1970 to 1984
• 1989 - Hanover, City Hall, documentation of the Leipzig Monday demonstrations "We are the people - Leipzig's long Monday march"
• 1989 - Bremen, press club, Leipzig Monday demonstrations
• 1990 - Bremen, city libraries, "Hiddensee - the fourth season" landscape
• 1990 - Bremen, press club, "Fotomodelle privat", long-term documentation 1970 to 1984
• 1991 - Hamburg, October 3rd on the Day of German Unity "Leipzig Monday Demonstrations"
• 1991 - Wolfenbüttel, KVHS education center, "The training - a class of the Palucca School-Dresden" Long-term documentation 1978 to 1986
• 1991 - Leipzig, Galerie Süd, "Jewelery in Photography" - act
• 1992 - Dresden, Palucca University of Dance, "Master Class 1978 to 1986"
• 1992 - Bremen, press club, "Living legend - Gret Palucca"
• 1994 - Bremen, Press Club, October 3rd on the Day of German Unity - extended photo documentation from 1989 to 1991
• 1997 - Lyon, City Hall, photo documentation "We are the people - Leipzig's long Monday march"

Participation in exhibitions (selection)

• 1960 - Karl-Marx-Stadt, photo show of the II Workers Festival
• 1963 - Berlin, big Köpenick photo competition
• 1965 - Budapest, German students - photography
• 1966 - Berlin, 2nd photo show of the German youth
• 1966 - Cologne, photokina
• 1966 - Warsaw, III. International art photography exhibition
• 1967 - International photo competition VEB Filmfabrik ORWO Wolfen - VEB PENTACON Dresden
• 1969 - Leipzig, district photo show
• 1971 - Berlin, world photo exhibition
• 1971 - 1972 to 1974 international photo exhibition "Venus-Portrait and Nude", Cracow / Poland
• 1972 - VII. GDR Photo Show, Berlin
• 1975 - International PENTACON-ORWO photo competition, Dresden-Wolfen
• 1981 - International photo exhibition, Plovdiv / Bulgaria
• 1982 - Rostock, Ifo Scanbaltic
• 1983 - Berlin, 9th photo show of the GDR
• 1983 - "Leipzig Photographers", Museum of FINE ARTS - LEIPZIG
• 1983 - International PENTACON-ORWO photo competition, Dresden-Wolfen
• 1987 - Karl-Marx-Stadt, Schmidt-Rottluff Gallery
• 1989 - Leipzig, Leipzig Monday demonstrations
• 1990 - Frankfurt / Main, "We are the people - Leipzig Monday demonstrations"
• 1991 - Hamburg, St. Petri Church, Leipzig Monday demonstrations
• 1998 - Leipzig, Alte Nikolaischule, Leipzig photographer of the VBK of the GDR
• 2002 - Leipzig-Allee Center / Grünau, fashion photography from the 1970s
• 2004 - Leipzig, photo documentation of a Monday demonstration in public space

Posthumously

• 2011 - Leipzig, City History Museum
• 2011 and 2012 - Leipzig, Telekom University
• 2019 and 2020 - Naunhof, Town Hall / Galerie Kugel

Awards (selection)

• First laureate and winner of the Obelisk at photokina Cologne - Certificate of Honor, 1966
• Gold medal "Photo Show of the German Youth", Berlin 1964
• Badge of honor for photography in bronze, Berlin 1964
• Gold medal 6th Workers' Festival, Gera 1964
• Gold medal V. German Photo Show, Berlin 1964
• Gold medal 2nd photo show of the German youth, Berlin 1966
• Certificate of honor world photo exhibition "From the happiness of people", Berlin 1967
• Medal of Honor VII. Photo Show of the GDR, Berlin 1972
• Badge of honor for photography in silver, Berlin 1974
• Certificate of honor and award winner "International PENTACON-ORWO photo competition", nudes 1975 and 1983

Literature (selection)

• Photokina 1966 International Photo and Cinema Exhibition Cologne, October 1st to 9th, 1966, exhibition catalog Pictures and Texts (editor L. Fritz Gruber)
• Photo yearbook international 1965, 1966, 1967, pictures and texts VEB Fotokinoverlag Leipzig
• PHOTOGRAPHY - Issue 6, pictures and texts VEB Fotokinoverlag Leipzig, 1967
• Leipzig - Galerie P, state art trade of the GDR Exhibition catalog 1984, pictures and texts
• Photography in the GDR - A Contribution to Photo History Edited by Heinz Hoffmann and Rainer Knapp, Fotokinoverlag, Leipzig 1987
• 9th GDR Photo Show - Berlin, June 22 to July 17, 1983 exhibition catalog
• Wegzeichen - Zeitzeichen, Leipziger Montage, exhibition catalog, Landesgirokasse Stuttgart, 4th July to 31st August 1990
• “Insight into the knowledge of domination of a dictatorship - chance or curse?” Cover photo, Ed. Tobias Hollitzer, Westdeutscher Verlag 1996
• The democratic revolution of the GDR 1989/90, Bernd Lindner, Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 1998
• “Today 10 years ago - Leipzig on the way to a peaceful revolution”, Tobias Hollitzer / Reinhard Bohse, Innovatio Verlag Friborg 2000
• Photo posting - Four generations of East German photographers, exhibition catalog Haus der Geschichte Bonn, EA Seemann publishing house, Leipzig 2001
• General artist lexicon 2001 - KUE number: 40329013, KG Saur Verlag Munich - Leipzig

Publications (selection)

• Furs from Leipzig Furs from Brühl, SAX Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86729-146-0
• We are the people, SAX Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86729-163-7
• Gret Palucca Dance training behind the "Iron Curtain", SAX Verlag, ISBN 978-3-86729-211-5

Web links

• Biography on dorndeck.de