Zentralbild. Socialist Visual Policy in an International Context

Book project

The state-run photo agency Zentralbild was founded in the GDR in 1952 and became affiliated with the news agency ADN in 1956. While the core collection of images originated from the extensive archives of the Berlin-based Scherl publishing house, the new agency quickly began hiring its own photographers to produce news photos and photo essays. In the mid-1960s, Photo International was established as an international department that organized the exchange of images with socialist and Western agencies. Many of the images produced by Zentralbild are monochrome "protocol photographs," as they were referred to internally. Using photographs and written sources, such as meeting minutes and Stasi files, this project examines how the GDR pursued its state image policy and how visual conformism, as well as photographic subversion, unfolded.