Hallo Leipzig – cultural guide, interviews, creatives

For “Hallo Leipzig” we went to the East of Germany. In Leipzig author and photographer Harriet Dohmeyer met the guise of unconventional founders with special ideas.

Three friends, for example, who run a hostel whose rooms were all designed by local artists. Or a man who came to Leipzig from Israel at the age of 24 to show the city what really good hummus tastes like.
In addition there are lovingly designed picture series and descriptive texts of special places: from museums to record shops, from cafés to lakes. The book also includes interviews with the founders of six selected places – like with the owner of the riso copy shop “riso club” – for an extra-deep dive into the stories and thoughts of the city's people.

For the Hallo book series, journalist Harriet Dohmeyer travels to a city for a month, interviews founders, captures photo reports and discovers through coincidences and deliberate drifting. Back in Hamburg, together with the team of the indie publishing house Ankerwechsel, she brings pictures, owner-managed shops, subculture and personal stories into book form. The result: design and image-rich travel companions for anyone who wants more than a fast-moving travel guide. So there is also room for topics that go beyond culture and culinary delights – as in 'Hallo Leipzig', for example, East Germany as a refuge for creative people, gentrification and racism.