Ilka Hartmann came to the United States when she was almost 23. Originally a student of protestant theology, she soon fell in love with photography. At the University of California in Berkeley, where she was studying German Literature and teaching German language, she was deeply affected by the anti-Vietnam War Movement because she had been born in a war herself, World War II. As a young girl growing up in post-war Germany, she learned in school about her country’s recent discrimination, persecution and eventual murder of millions of people. In the 1960s at Berkeley and nearby San Francisco State, there was also a rising awareness that the different ethnic groups of this society were not represented equally nor in the curriculum of the universities.
Ilka Hartmann alikuja Marekani alipokuwa na umri wa karibu miaka 23. Hapo awali alikuwa mwanafunzi wa theolojia ya Kiprotestanti, hivi karibuni alipenda upigaji picha. Katika Chuo Kikuu cha California huko Berkeley, ambapo alikuwa akisoma Fasihi ya Kijerumani na kufundisha lugha ya Kijerumani, aliathiriwa sana na Vuguvugu la Vita dhidi ya Vietnam kwa sababu alizaliwa katika vita mwenyewe, Vita vya Kidunia vya pili. Akiwa msichana mdogo aliyekulia nchini Ujerumani baada ya vita, alijifunza shuleni kuhusu ubaguzi wa hivi majuzi wa nchi yake, mateso na mauaji ya mamilioni ya watu. Katika miaka ya 1960 huko Berkeley na Jimbo la karibu la San Francisco, pia kulikuwa na ufahamu unaoongezeka kwamba makabila tofauti ya jamii hii hayakuwakilishwa kwa usawa wala katika mtaala wa vyuo vikuu.