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Christa Mayer

Photography. The Oeuvre

The Human in Focus

In over four decades, Christa Mayer (b. Bad Kissingen, 1945; lives and works in Berlin) has created a singular photographic oeuvre. The psychologist developed her distinctive progressive creative style in the early 1980s, when she studied at the Berlin Werkstatt für Photographie at Volkshochschule Kreuzberg, founded by Michael Schmidt; she was among the few women to hold her own in the competitive environment. She soon attracted attention with her unusually intimate and touching portraits from the long-term psychiatric care facility of a Berlin hospital, where she worked for more than two decades as a psychotherapist. 

Released on occasion of Christa Mayer’s eightieth birthday, this catalogue raisonné pays homage to a photographic oeuvre that encompasses major bodies of work like Abwesende (1982–1996), Silvia, “Ich will endlich leben” (1990), and Mensch und Hase (1994–1996) as well as self-portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and abstract compositions. With contributions by Carolin Förster, Maren Lübbke-Tidow, Barbara Esch Marowski, and Thomas Weski.