Margit Emmrich

Margit Emmrich’s Wohnzimmer is a seminal photographic series capturing individuals in their living rooms in East Germany. Using a large-format camera, Emmrich combines formal precision with intimate observation, portraying sitters who appear both composed and natural within richly detailed, densely furnished interiors. Objects, wallpaper, and furniture are not mere background—they actively shape the portraits, revealing social identity, personal taste, and the negotiation of selfhood in private spaces.

In contrast to Christian Borchert, who documented comparable subject matter in black and white during the 1980s, Emmrich was among the first East German documentary photographers to work with colour, using it to enhance textures, patterns, and the atmospheres of domestic interiors. Wohnzimmer thus emphasizes the private sphere as a stage for self-expression and personal curation.

Presented in its entirety at Loock Galerie, Wohnzimmer gains significance as a cumulative work: its interiors articulate a shared yet non-uniform domestic culture, revealing how everyday living spaces functioned as one of the few arenas for individuality, adaptation, and quiet change within East German society.

Margit Emmrich (b. 1949 in Chemnitz) lives and works in Leipzig. Her works have been exhibited at the Fondazione Prada, Milan, Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig, ACC-Galerie Weimar, Kunsthalle Erfurt, Zeitgeschichtliches Forum Leipzig, and Galerie Ost, and are in the following collections: Zeitgeschichtliches Forum, Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste Leipzig and Stiftung Reinbeckhallen, Berlin.