Ute Mahler & Werner Mahler
April 25, 2026 – June 6, 2026
Monalises of the Suburbs
Galerie–Peter–Sillem
With their photographic work, as educators, and as co-founders of the renowned Ostkreuz photography agency and the Ostkreuz School in Berlin, Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler are among the most significant figures in German photography.*Monalises of the Suburbs*(2008–2010) is their first collaborative project. In the suburbs of Reykjavik, Liverpool, Minsk, Berlin, and Florence, they encounter young women who have outgrown childhood and are searching for themselves and their place in the world.
When Ute and Werner Mahler began working on their first joint project in 2008, they had already been a couple for more than forty years and each had an impressive career in photography to their credit—both in the GDR, where they grew up, and in the years following reunification. Both had studied photography in Leipzig and worked as freelance photographers, taking on commissions as well as pursuing their own projects. Together with five other prominent GDR photographers, they founded the renowned Ostkreuz photo agency in 1990. For decades, they had assisted one another whenever the other “had a job,” but it was only their work on the self-chosen theme “Monalises of the Suburbs” that developed into a joint project and thus into a new form of collaboration.
Opening in the presence of Ute and Werner Mahler: Friday, April 24, 6–8 p.m.
Gallery–Peter–Sillem
Dreieichstraße 2
60594 Frankfurt am Main
Tel. 069/61 99 55 50