After three years of study in Arles, I embarked upon a trip across East Germany. It was the summer of 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but before the reunification. Without any preconceived idea (really ?), I photographed the countryside, towns and villages, travelling all over this completely unknown yet strangely familiar territory. Once back in France, I developped the films, then forgot all about them until 2009, when the Berlin Film Archive asked me to contribute to an exhibition marking the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was at that moment that these images from 1990 suddenly featured in my career. I digitized the negatives and in addition to the memories of the trip that come flooding back, I also think again of my studies, of the discussions during the "critical seminars" and of the most lasting influences - somewhere between Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Walker Evans. Something had just taken shape.

Brigitte Bauer

After three years of study in Arles, I embarked upon a trip across East Germany. It was the summer of 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, but before the reunification. Without any preconceived idea (really ?), I photographed the countryside, towns and villages, travelling all over this completely unknown yet strangely familiar territory. Once back in France, I developped the films, then forgot all about them until 2009, when the Berlin Film Archive asked me to contribute to an exhibition marking the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was at that moment that these images from 1990 suddenly featured in my career. I digitized the negatives and in addition to the memories of the trip that come flooding back, I also think again of my studies, of the discussions during the "critical seminars" and of the most lasting influences - somewhere between Robert Adams, Lewis Baltz, Walker Evans. Something had just taken shape.

Brigitte Bauer