'Know who you are covering,' photojournalist tells students

That's what Bernd Lemmel had to endure as a news photographer in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell in 1989.

Lemmel told about 50 people gathered in the Franklin Building Thursday evening that his experience covering news under communist government censorship was too frustrating to bear.

Lemmel, now a freelance photographer whose photos have appeared in major German and American publications, said censorship of the truth disgusted him most about his former job.

"If you start to influence the story, it's like a lie," Lemmel said.

Now, he is uncompromisingly honest when covering people and events. He won't even ask his subjects where to stand or how to pose. The photographer, who still lives in the former East Germany, presented some of his slides along with holding a question-and-answer session with the audience, populated mainly by UA journalism and photojournalism students.

Lemmel showed a series of pictures he took while riding along with a German motorcycle club as they traveled to Auschwitz to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the famous Nazi prison camp's liberation. He also presented a series of slides depicting homeless children in Berlin.

In both cases, Lemmel said he had to first earn the trust of his subjects before they let him take their pictures.

He spent eight weeks hanging around the German bikers to prepare for the trip to Auschwitz, the location used for prison camp scenes in the film, "Schindler's List."

Likewise, he spent six weeks developing a rapport with a homeless drug addict in Berlin for the other photo series. Both series were published in German magazines.

Above all, Lemmel said, a good photographer must care about the people on the other side of the lens.

"The most important thing is to respect those people," he said. "You don't have to agree with them, but ... you must know who you are covering and what they are doing."