Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 16, 1995 TAG: 9502240006
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: WENDI RICHERT SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Roanoke photographer Page Chichester lived with his wife, Katharina Giebel-Chichester, in West Germany at that time. Chichester and his friend and fellow photographer Helmut Brinkmann began the trip on the cold and icy morning of Dec. 29.
Driving in Brinkmann's newly customized VW bus, the two crossed the border for an eight-day tour through the small towns of East Germany. They returned in 1990 with a new and uncensored view of life beyond the wall.
Fifty-three of the photographs Chichester and Brinkmann made on their journey are exhibited in ``Scenes From Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989/1990.'' The exhibit is on display in Olin Gallery of Roanoke College. Each black-and-white picture sheds new color on a gray and weary society previously shielded from the rest of the world by its government. Many also illustrate the readiness of these people to open their land to the West.
While the wall officially had been opened on Nov.9, 1989, the future of East Germany still was unclear.
``There was certainly no definite idea that there would be a reunification of the two Germanies,'' Chichester said recently as he led a reporter through the exhibit. ``Nobody was really clear whether there would be a reversal ... It was an odd time.''
And so the trip Chichester and Brinkmann made into a country where unrestricted photography had been forbidden for years was chancy from its start. Chichester said the fact that he was allowed to return home with 13 rolls of film is a credit to the willingness of the East German people to trust Westerners.
Throughout the trip, Chichester said, people were fascinated by the Western photographers, asking to have their pictures taken with them and even making rabbit ears behind their heads.
One said, ``We're photogenic, too,'' as Chichester snapped the picture - something that likely wouldn't have made it past the censors weeks before.
While Chichester and Brinkmann were prepared to sleep in the VW bus each night, they instead were invited to stay in the homes of some of the people they met.
``Some were absolutely impoverished,'' Chichester said, ``and they still asked us to stay.''
Daylight proved welcoming, too, as many others invited them in for an honest glimpse of an East German's daily life.
``Again and again we would run into workers who were interested in showing us what life was like here,'' Chichester recalled. ``They had a hard life, and they wanted to show it.''
In December 1989 these workers were risking trouble by allowing Westerners access to their shops, Chichester added. Two workers were reprimanded by their boss after he discovered them showing the Western pair around their forklift repair workshop.
Pictured in one photograph are two smiling men standing in the cluttered, dirty shop, a poster of a nude woman hanging on the wall. Certainly, this would have been censored weeks before, Chichester pointed out.
``These guys were delighted to see Westerners - to show them how life really was not sparkling clean.''
In fact, throughout much of their trip, Chichester was taken with the grayness of their visit.
``Most of my work is in color,'' he said of his photography. He had intended to shoot some color pictures, but ``it was so gray; it was so black and white there. Black and white seemed to be the best way to depict this.''
In describing a photograph of a factory, steamy pollution billowing out of its smokestacks into a cold and gray day, Chichester described the danger he and Brinkmann faced on occasion.
``We were foolish enough to walk in [a coal-brick making factory] with this guy and take pictures.''
A guard, spying their cameras, approached them as they were leaving, then rushed off to his guard house, presumably to call the police.
``He kinda flipped out,'' said Chichester. ``Normally anyone taking pictures in an industrial area could be accused of espionage.''
Instead of coming with him as requested, Chichester and Brinkmann walked to the van and hastened away. The guard did not follow.
The experience, nevertheless, was frightening.
``I could have sat in jail,'' said Chichester, who moved to Roanoke almost three years ago to be managing editor of a regional magazine. ``The government was in transition, and the old order had not been changed. I was very scared at that point.''
A few of his photographs, Chichester said, reflect the fear that still lay in the faces of the East Germans.
``The Look- Leipzig,'' a picture of a man gazing out of a bus window, Chichester explained, is an example of a look he often saw in the eyes of East Germans. That look hinted at ``a little bit of curiosity but a good portion of fear ... They had a tired, a burdened look to them. I often saw this look.
``It was a bit depressing,'' he continued. ``Sort of like people waiting for life to start.''
Meanwhile, life was starting over for many. A few of the photographs on display show hands chipping away at the wall, entrepreneurs selling the past and children grinding away at it.
It has taken Chichester two years to put the exhibit together for its United States showing. Pieces have appeared before in and around Roanoke, and the exhibit's next stop is the Washington (D.C.) Center for Photography. It will open there on April 14.
``Oddly, in Germany they're still not willing to look back'' at the five-year anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, said Chichester.
Brinkmann, who is looking for funding for the exhibit in Germany, has had little luck, Chichester said. However, one place in Bonn has offered space for the exhibit and it will open in April.
Perhaps by the 10-year anniversary, Germany will prove more receptive to a study of its recent past, Chichester hopes.
``When I was [in Germany] this summer, a few people were saying, `I wish they'd rebuild the wall,''' he recalled sadly.
``To me, it's offensive to hear people say, `I wish they'd rebuild the wall,' because it's such a horrifying symbol. We'd like to think of it as a dinosaur.''
``Scenes From Behind the Wall: Images of East Germany, 1989/1990'' will remain on display at Roanoke College's Olin Gallery through Feb.26.
A catalog, which contains Chichester's brief day-to-day descriptions of the trip and Katharina Giebel-Chichester's own observations of her 44 years in Germany, accompanies the exhibit. The gallery is open Tuesday-Sunday from 1-4 p.m. and Thursday, 6-9 p.m.
by CNB