PHOTO LONDON 2026

At the centre of the presentation is a group of 22 rare vintage prints by Ute Mahler from 1978 to 1989, produced in the former German Democratic Republic. Now seldom seen, these works transcend the conventions of fashion photography.

Formally precise and subtly staged, they offer nuanced insights into everyday life in the GDR. Created at a time when fashion functioned less as consumption than as a means of expression, the images reveal how clothing could articulate individuality and character.

Many of these photographs—originally published in the East German fashion magazine Sibylle—have since become iconic.

They reflect a distinctive visual language that moves between editorial assignment and observation, capturing a society in which style, identity, and social reality were closely intertwined.

Complementing this historical body of work is the joint series Monalisen der Vorstädte (Mona Lisas of the Suburbs, 2008– 2010), the artists’ first collaborative project. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic portrait, the Mahlers photographed young women in the suburbs of Reykjavík, Liverpool, Minsk, Berlin, and Florence. With a reduced, classical visual language, the series captures a fleeting moment of transition shaped by questions of identity, belonging, and possibility.

Together, these works trace both continuity and transformation in the Mahlers’ practice, highlighting a sustained engagement with portraiture and the poetics of the everyday.

Ute Mahler and Werner Mahler have known each other since their school days and studied at the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig in the early 1970s. They have supported one another throughout their independent artistic careers, both in the GDR and after reunification. In 1990, they co-founded the Ostkreuz agency in Berlin; since 2008, they have also worked together as artistic collaborators. The artists live in Lehnitz, Brandenburg.