Tina Bara (born 18 March 1962, in

Kleinmachnow Kleinmachnow is a municipality of about 20,000 inhabitants in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated South-West of the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf and East of Potsdam. First mentioned in the Landbuch of Karl ...

) is a German photographer who began her career in the

German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Her work was featured in several exhibitions at key galleries and museums, including the Galerie Eigen + Art, Leipzig and the Kunsthalle Erfurt. In MutualArt’s artist press archive, Tina Bara is featured in Interference, a piece from the Revista Arta in 2020. Before

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller polities, or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal governmen ...

, she was in touch with peace movement in the

Life

Bara was born just outside Berlin, but grew up in

Guben Guben (Polish and Sorbian: ''Gubin'') is a town on the Lusatian Neisse river in Lower Lusatia, in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. Located in the Spree-Neiße district, Guben has a population of 20,049. Along with Frankfurt (Oder) and Görlitz ...

, then on what had since

1945 1945 marked the end of World War II and the fall of Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan. It is also the only year in which nuclear weapons have been used in combat. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. Januar ...

, been the

frontier A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...

of the

with

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. In 1980, she moved back to Berlin, and from 1980 to 1986, attended the

Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

, where she studied History and Art History. As a student, she was in touch with political opposition groups, including Frauen für den Frieden (''Women for Peace''). (The German Democratic Republic was hosting more than 300,000

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

troops at the time.) While still at university Bara held her first exhibition at the regional Public Arts House at Berlin-Treptow. In 1986 she joined the East German League of Image Artists as a freelance photographer. During this time, her commissions included work on documentary films for

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...

, the state-owned film company, including flüstern & SCHREIEN – Ein Rockreport, a major documentary project lasting three years and headed up by Dieter Schumann. In 1986, Bara started a correspondence course in photography with the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. However, this was becoming a period of increasing political instability for the German Democratic Republic and she discontinued the course in 1989 without, at this stage, receiving a qualification. Instead, in July 1989, a few months before the Berlin wall fell, she found she was able to emigrate through the "Inner frontier" and relocated to

West Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

, where she pursued a career as a freelance artist-photographer, also working on video documentaries. In 1991, she received, belatedly, a diploma with :de:Arno Fischer (Fotograf)Arno Fischer from the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts where, since 1993, she has held a professorship in photography.

Work

Bara's self taught method of photography in which she films the female body in close range conveys a sense of societal discomfort. This was illustrated in her 1988 work, o.T. (Untitled) in fourteen parts. Bara's critical and political consciousness was shaped by her participation in Frauen fur den Frieden, and explored through her autobiographical photography, in which her understanding of self and the world was mirrored. She stated in 2009 that, "My female gaze arose from my biography and from my personal search for identity. A distancing feminist self-assertion was not our thing."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bara, Tina 1962 births Living people People from Guben East German photographers East German women German women photographers Photographers from Brandenburg 20th-century women photographers 20th-century German women