Walls, fences, and shop windows, but also life in a retirement home or leisure activities at the trotting track: In the 1970s and 1980s, Dietmar Riemann photographed a wide variety of facets of everyday life in the GDR. His rich collection of images is not only a testament to his personal state of mind in a difficult political situation, but also reflects social concerns. The photographs address fundamental questions of (lack of) freedom, interpersonal relationships, and human existence. These include critical perspectives on scenes in a retirement home,
dilapidated industrial facilities, and people with intellectual disabilities, as well as tongue-in-cheek glimpses of leisure activities at the trotting track. Riemann was born in Saxony in 1950 and lived with his family in East Berlin until 1989. It was only shortly before the collapse of the GDR, after a wait of nearly four years, that his application to leave the country and renounce his citizenship was granted, and the family moved to West Germany.

Riemann lives and works near Heidelberg.