The Moment recently ran a great interview with Ute Mahler, a prominent photographer in East Germany before the wall came down. Sameer Reddy writes that Mahler's fashion photos "portrayed women as strong individuals, concerned more with style than with the latest fashions (which weren’t available anyway to citizens of the G.D.R)."Mahler says of her work for the state-sponsored fashion magazine Sybille that "you couldn’t easily get the clothing, so it was just about inspiration. The most important thing was to give the women who read the magazine their own style and to encourage them to dream.... There were no names or lines."Somehow that idea seems very refreshing and current right now.Click here to read the rest of the interview, and visit the Galerie für Moderne Fotografie in Berlin, where Mahler's work is on display through March 10th.

See also: Dossier Journal, where photographer Skye Parrott posted about the OstKreuz Agency, a group of photographers from the former East Germany (including Ute Mahler).