Zuhause

Schleef started taking photos in 1965 while studying at the School of Art and Design Berlin Weissensee. His first series of photos demonstrates his interest in and affection for his old neighbours in an East Berlin block of flats, while at the same time he documents shop windows in Berlin, a subject that reminded him of the shortage in his childhood years and that fascinated him thereafter. As of 1970, he began to create a portrait of Sangerhausen, his mother’s birthplace and his home town, publishing these pictures in the book of photography called "Zuhause" (home) in 1981, that Schleef preceded with the following words: "Never back again, get over what suffocates and eats you up and flee until you have a home of your own."--Camera Austria website.