Born in Saarland in 1955, Petra Gall came to West Berlin in 1981 to study History, Politics and Russian. A self-taught photographer, she began to take pictures, founding the photo agency ‘Zebra’ together with Heidi, publishing books and calendars as well as working for the TAZ. She photographed everything the underground scene had to offer, from the women and lesbians that made up the scene of “Nacht der bösen Mösen” (Night of the angry pussys) and the Mädchenprojekt (Girl project) in Kreuzberg to the music scene of Diamanda Gallas, from the Rainbirds to Nick Cave. She made portraits of icons of her time such as Ulrike Ottinger or Charlotte von Mahlsdorf and documented the riotous Off-Fashion fairs of the 80s. In the 90s she turned her passion for photography to motorcycling and on commission from motorcycling magazines, produced reports of her travels from all over the world, from places as diverse as the Cape of Good Hope and Tashkent. Today Petra Gall lives in Berlin in poor health. The exhibition will show excerpts from her work and invites you to take a journey in time through Berlin subcultures from the 80s up to the first years after reunification.

Rüdiger Trautsch was born 23rd May 1946 in Hamburg, attending the College of Design, where he studied photography under Karin Syekessy and Ingeborg Sello and attended courses on fashion design and illustration. After graduating, Trautsch worked as a layouter for advertising agencies. From 1973 to 1981 he studied at the Hamburg Academy for Fine Arts. His diploma thesis was a year-long photographic project entitled Aus Liebe hat es kaum einer getan, documenting the every day life of an old homosexual man in the St Georg quarter. From 1981 onwards Trautsch worked as a freelance photographer for advertising agencies and fashion magazines and together with his partner, Ken Hall, ran a photographic studio. The collaboration ended after Hall contracted Aids and moved back to America. In 1994 Trautsch gave up the 229 square metre studio, afterwards working on a few photo and drawing projects. His long-term photo projects, include ‘Folsom’, ‘Bärenparty’, ‘Damenimitatoren’ and ‘Männer Paare’. From the start of the 1970s, Trautsch documented the gay rights movement in his photographs. The exhibition will show excerpts from his photographic work as well as presenting his graphic works for the first time.

Curators: Birgit Bosold, Wolfgang Theis