Occupation Photographer | Name Tina Bara | |
 | ||
Children 1 son (1995)1 daughter (2001) | ||
Tina Bara (born Kleinmachnow 18 March 1962) is a German photographer who began her career in the German Democratic Republic
Before reunification, she was in touch with Peace activism in the German Democratic Republic.
Life
Bara was born just outside Berlin, but grew up in Guben, then on what had, since 1945, been the frontier of the German Democratic Republic with Poland.
In 1980, she moved back to Berlin, and from 1980 to 1986, attended the Humboldt University of Berlin, where she studied history and art history. As a student, she was in touch with political opposition groups, including Frauen für den Frieden (Women for Peace). (The German Democratic Republic was hosting more than 300,000 Soviet troops at the time.) While still at university Bara held her first exhibition at the regionalPublic Arts House at Berlin-Treptow. In 1986 she joined the East German League of Image Artists as a freelance photographer. During this time, her commissions included work on documentary films for the National Film Company, including flüstern & SCHREIEN – Ein Rockreport, a major documentary project lasting three years and headed up by Dieter Schumann.
In 1986, Bara started a correspondence course in photography with the Academy of Visual Arts in Leipzig. However, this was becoming a period of increasing political instability for the German Democratic Republic and she discontinued the course in 1989 without, at this stage, receiving a qualification. Instead, in July 1989, a few months before the Wall was breached, she found she was able to emigrate through the "Inner frontier" and relocated to West Berlin, where she pursued a career as a freelance artist-photographer, also working on video documentaries.
In 1991, she received, belatedly, a diploma with de:Arno Fischer (Fotograf)Arno Fischer from the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts where, since 1993, she has held a professorship in photography.