Until 1989 there was a high degree of social mixing in Halle-Silberhöhe. After 1989 there were major changes in the labor and housing markets. Unemployment, social separation and vacancies were observed and young people in particular were leaving the Silberhöhe. Since the mid-1990s, Halle-Silberhöhe has lost more than half of its residents, and by 2004 the average age had risen by ten years.
Due to the drastic vacancy rates, Halle-Silberhöhe was partly demolished in certain areas and partly in large areas. The resulting fallow areas should be largely reforested.

Between 2005 and 2007, Robert Schlotter documented the architecture, streets and processes of change in the Silberhöhe and portrayed residents and passers-by.

“In the GDR, new housing estates were built as planned, which, in addition to creating living space, were also intended to offer a socialist alternative to the “bourgeois” old towns. What was sought after back then – also because of the clean district heating and hot running water – has now often degenerated into a problematic peripheral zone. One of these is the Silberhöhe in Halle (Saale). Robert Schlotter visited the Silberhöhe between 2005 and 2007, photographed streets and made portraits of their residents. The black and white of his photos reinforces the structural desolation of the prefabricated buildings, in contrast to the people who live here. In their looks – here Schlotter approaches Helga Paris’s Halle series – the will to persevere is palpable. Silberhöhe has become home to many.” — MDV, Halle (Saale)

Der Beitrag Halle-Silberhöhe erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

Jürgen Kühner on Beyond Cold War

“[…] Schlotter’s photographs only take effect at second glance. It is only through the context that they change from generic landscape photographs to a socio-political analysis with the conclusion that borders can run anywhere and at any time, that no structures are needed to separate countries and people.”

https://framesandfascination.com/2019/09/02/robert-schlotter-beyond-cold-war/

Der Beitrag Beyond Cold War – Collectors Edition erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

“[…] Schlotter’s photographs only take effect at second glance. It is only through the context that they change from generic landscape photographs to a socio-political analysis with the conclusion that borders can run anywhere and at any time, that no structures are needed to separate countries and people.” – Jürgen Kühner

https://framesandfascination.com/2022/01/22/robert-schlotter-beyond-cold-war/

Der Beitrag Beyond Cold War erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.

“Memories and how to get them raises the question about the latent, fragmentary nature of photography. On the one hand, its shifting between reality and fiction and vice versa gives rise to a quasi-infinite participative narrative. On the other hand, the awareness of the diversity of potential openings to representation stresses the impossibility of one absolute literal image and sharpens our critical reception and the way in which we deal with images. This topic is even more relevant when photography is used as a means to reflect upon the past and on collective remembrance. Contrary to popular opinion, memory is not a stable reservoir, but is shaped by the very act of recollection. Each alteration in world view involves new means of constructing it.”

From ‘I was here’ by Michèle Walerich, published in: Tourists & Nomads Marburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-89445-464-7

Der Beitrag Memories And How To Get Them erschien zuerst auf malenki.net.