Long Night - Erasmus Schröter

“Lange Nacht” shows how technical experimentation and documentary photography can create new visual levels and is also a reminder of the early artistic work of the great photographer Erasmus Schröter.

‘I had only two copies of the original book Nachts left. It was
published in 1982 in a limited edition of 100 copies… For me,
the photographs taken between 1980 and 1981 are among
the best and most impressive images that Erasmus – then still
a very young man – ever took,’ says his wife Annette Schröter.
Erasmus Schröter took the pictures for this book on infrared
film using the so-called ”black flash method.” It was never clarified
how he was able to obtain this film material at the time,
but he was fascinated by the possibilities of this technique
and used it intensively on his excursions into the nightlife of
the GDR, mainly in Leipzig. The images show people waiting,
ball and opera goers, lovers, dancers, tattooed men at fairs,
circus people and artists’ festivals. The images – transcendent
and blurred – create the atmosphere of a surreal theatre.
Erasmus Schröter (1956–2021) left the GDR in 1985 in protest
and only returned to his hometown of Leipzig in the 1990s.
In addition to his profession as a photographer, he was also
a passionate collector of GDR children’s toys and GDR architecture
postcards. He repeatedly incorporated both into his
works and exhibitions. What is fascinating about his pictures
is that they combine everyday culture with an incredibly
strong aesthetic appeal.
Uwe Kolbe, renowned poet and prose writer, was a close
friend of Erasmus Schröter during the 1970s and 80s, occasionally
accompanying him on his excursions into East Germany’s
nightlife