Roger Melis
Artist Portraits

The portraits of Roger Melis (1940 – 2009) are legendary. Like few others, the Berlin photographer has shaped the “face” of modern German literature since the early 1960s and has also given visual and performing artists an unmistakable face. When people think of Johannes Bobrowski, Heiner Müller, Thomas Brasch and Christa Wolf, they usually see his pictures. Photographs such as those of the exhausted Anna Seghers, of Wolf Biermann on the Weidendammer Bridge or Sarah Kirsch on her departure boxes have become “icons” over the years due to their historical significance.

With over 100 original prints from 40 years, the exhibition presents the entire spectrum of Roger Melis's often praised portrait art and, with well-known photographs as well as many that are being exhibited for the first time, also sheds light on the lively intellectual life of the East German cultural scene.

A particular focus of the exhibition is the portrait series The Artists of Prenzlauer Berg, which was created in 1989 and was shown for the first and last time more than 30 years ago in the days of upheaval. These are portraits of creative people who are exemplary of the subcultural awakening movement of the late 1980s in Berlin.

Also on display for the first time are a series of portraits of Berlin photographers and Roger Melis' photographic homage Thea, which is dedicated to his life partner, the fashion journalist Dorothea Melis, often praised as the “Anna Wintour of the East”.

The exhibition is a result of the processing of the photographer's estate for the Roger Melis Archive of the Akademie der Künste, which has already added 900 artist portraits to its collection. It is a cooperation project between Galerie Pankow, the Akademie der Künste and the Leonhardi Museum Dresden.