Endstation Neuland
Just three days after the opening of the exhibition Harald Hauswald . Voll das Leben! . Retrospektive the Berlin-based photographer Harald Hauswald and Iris Janke led a workshop introducing eight young adults from Youth Force / Karuna Family to the world of photography.
The four-day photo workshop began with a joint visit to the exhibition at C/O Berlin. The young people learned more about life in East Germany by looking at the photographs on display and hearing about Hauswald’s experiences. His images capture poignant and unique moments and bear witness to everyday life under socialism, in particular to the development of East Berlin and the forces of oppositional groups, artists, and different youth cultures. Hauswald’s photographs make palpable the fall of the Wall, the challenges brought about during German reunification, and the discovery of new horizons for many East Berliners.
These impressions served as the starting point for conversations about the broad field of photography, the diverse and constantly changing nature of life in Berlin, and what can be different when a person travels to a place for the first time. Workshop participants then had two days to travel by public transport on a photographic journey into the unknown. The destinations were the last stops on Berlin’s local train lines. In words and images, they documented their journeys and arrivals at these final stations. What did they notice? What moved them? And what had they never seen before? People and the encounters that took place between them were the focus. On the final day of the workshop, the results from these journeys of discovery were shared, discussed, edited, and presented to the group.
The workshop’s outcomes and other interesting articles on photography, life in Berlin, Harald Hauswald’s photographs, and Youth Force / Karuna were published in mid-October 2020 in Karuna Kompass, a free newspaper published by Karuna Family with a circulation of 25,000.
KARUNA FAMILY
What began back in 1982 with a small youth club in East Berlin has meanwhile developed into an internationally networked organization: Here, former street kids are working with companies, associations and institutions to form an inclusive community committed to solidarity, environmental protection and democracy. Together, we take projects to the street that are innovative and socially beneficial at the same time.
Karuna Youth Force
During the Corona crisis, Save the Children and KARUNA launched a peer-to-peer assistance program for young people living on the streets in Berlin. Here, young people with their own experiences of life on the margins of society work with street children who are suffering particular additional difficulties because of the social effects of the pandemic. The Corona crisis with its social distancing measures is a particular challenge for young people living on the streets. That’s why the world’s biggest independent children’s rights organization Save the Children and the inclusive community KARUNA are bundling their strengths to launch a unique assistance program in Berlin. Alongside the distribution of aid kits for protection against COVID-19, the aim is to prevent violence and sexual abuse. A specially founded YOUTH FORCE, which includes not only former street children but also social workers and trauma experts, is there to help with the search for a safe place to sleep and to offer psychological support.
Harald Hauswald
(b. 1954 in Radebeul, Saxony) is one of the most eminent East German photographers. Together with Sibylle Bergemann, Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler, and others, he founded OSTKREUZ – Agentur der Fotografen, a photographer- run agency. After completing a traineeship to become a photographer, Hauswald moved to East Berlin in 1978, where he worked as a telegram carrier in Prenzlauer Berg and for the Stephanus Foundation, among other things. From the early 1980s, he regularly published photo-essays in West German periodicals including GEO, Stern, Zitty, and taz, at first using a pseudonym and later under his own name. His work has been shown in over 250 solo exhibitions across Germany, the United States, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and elsewhere, and has been published in diverse publications on East Berlin and everyday life in the GDR. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1997) and the Einheitspreis – Bürgerpreis zur Deutschen Einheit (Citizens’ Award for German Unity, 2006). Harald Hauswald lives and works in Berlin.
Iris Janke
studied visual communication and fine art and works as a photographer. Her work has been shown around the world in numerous exhibitions and photography festivals. In 2011, she exhibited her work as part of C/O Berlin’s Talents series.