Jenny Paris on Her Mother Helga Paris's Banned 1986 Exhibition in East Germany

In an interview with Der Freitag, Jenny Paris, a jewelry designer, discusses her mother Helga Paris, one of the most significant photographers of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Helga Paris documented the city of Halle, capturing its decay and beauty. In 1986, her exhibition was banned by the party before its opening, an event that deeply affected her. Jenny Paris recalls the moment, noting that her mother was 'at the end' afterward. The interview takes place in the Berlin apartment in Winsstraße where Helga Paris lived for nearly 58 years, surrounded by her growing photo archive on the beauty and decay of the GDR. Jenny Paris, who now displays her own jewelry designs in the living room, describes Halle in the early 1980s as gray, with heavily polluted air and a visibly decaying old town. She arrived in Köthen in 1981 to begin a goldsmith apprenticeship at a VEB (state-owned enterprise), which she found terrible after coming from a big city. The interview highlights Helga Paris's legacy and the political constraints faced by artists in the GDR.