Berthold studied from 1969 to 1971 at the Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena social psychology. In 1971 she began studying photography at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig, completing her degree in 1976 with a diploma. Then she went to Berlin, where she worked as a freelance photographer. In 1984 she married the Dutchman Kees Metselaar and traveled out of the GDR. In the years 1985 to 1989 she was a lecturer and artistic staff including work at the University of Arts in Berlin. Then she focused on the production of documentaries and video essays and worked from 1991 for various TV productions. In 1996 signed the International Festival for Documentary and Animated Film in Leipzig her film "We were so happy to have been heroes" with the Silver Dove. [1] 1998/99 was Barbara Merselaar Berthold and a lecturer in photography at the School of Film TV Babelsberg held. Their documentary projects have been supported by grants from the film enhance the country Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and cultural promotion in the Free State of Saxony. In 2010 she received the award for artistic photography of artists program of the Berlin Senate. She lives in Berlin and the Uckermark.
Exhibitions
Fotowerkstatt Kreuzberg, Berlin 1985
Stadtstand II, Installation mit Hans-Hendrik Grimmling, Lutz Friedel und Martin Steyer im Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 1988
DDR-Frauen fotografieren , Haus am Lützowplatz Berlin und im Museum Ludwig, Oberhausen 1990, mit Katalog: Gabriele Muschter, (Hrsg.): DDR Frauen fotografieren. Lexikon und Anthologie, ex pose verlag, Berlin 1990
Citylights, Alter Wiehrebahnhof Freiburg 1991
Changeant, intermediales Projekt mit M.-A. Bahra, Anna Werkmeister und Heike Willingham, Waschhaus Potsdam 1994
In den großen Städten, Galerie argus Fotokunst, Berlin 1996
Cut/Kire/Schnitt, Galerie Schwarzes Kloster Freiburg, 1998
Frozen Margaritas, fotografische Installation in der Galerie am Prater, Berlin 1999
Deutsche Tänze, Museum für zeitgenössische Kunst Cottbus, und im Haus am Kleistpark, Berlin-Schöneberg 1999