Category Archives: Berlin

New York/Border Photos

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mascontext

 

A time out from my Lower East Side book and exhibition.

My photographs of the former Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall are currently featured in the journal MAS Context. To quote their website, MAS Context, a quarterly journal created by MAS Studio, addresses issues that affect the urban context. Each issue delivers a comprehensive view of a single topic through the active participation of people from different fields and different perspectives who, together, instigate the debate.

The photographs shown begin in 1985 when I first began traveling across Europe with the view camera documenting the landscape of the Iron Curtain and come forward to a few years ago when I was last in Berlin. I have continued to photograph the area where the Wall once ran through the city. Although the border zone has become less visible over the years, there are still moments of urban disjuncture, as well as historical markers, remnants of the Wall, and the presence of new architecture and monuments.

In the last picture of the series, an East German Trabant, the iconic mini car, hovers from a video screen next to the Brandenburg Gate.

 

 

 

New York/Mitch Epstein

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Berlin by Mitch Epstein

I picked up Mitch Epstein’s Berlin recently. Published by Steidl, it is the product of a six month residency at the American Academy in Berlin. Epstein writes in the introduction about  his Jewish family’s refusal to visit Germany, and how he first went there  at the age of 49 to work with Steidl and to mount several exhibitions. Surprisingly, Germans had become some of his staunchest allies. He describes Berlin as ” more complicated and poignant” than any city he had known save Hanoi.


Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauerstrasse – © Mitch Epstein

As you can imagine, given my decades long commitment to photographing Berlin and its Wall–the real concrete one that came down in 1989, and the ongoing Wall of the imagination and historical presence–I was interested in what Epstein would bring to the subject. I have never met Mitch, though we both went to Cooper Union in the 1970s–he a couple of years before me. And I have always had the highest regard for his work, especially his recent book American Power, an extraordinary journey across the United States focused on the use and abuse of energy.


Checkpoint Charlie – © Mitch Epstein

I love Epstein’s photograph of Checkpoint Charlie, one of the most historically charged places in Berlin , the former Allied border crossing and scene of Cold War standoffs with the Soviets. It’s a perfect depiction of one of the the things I find fascinating about Berlin–deep and sobering history juxtaposed with crass commercialism and touristy kitsch. Berlin, the book, is a compilation of historical sites, many famous or infamous, others only known to those who have done the kind of research Epstein did.


The Dalai Lama at the Brandenburg Gate – © Mitch Epstein

Only a few of the photographs show the urban vibrancy of Berlin, a missing element, perhaps, but it is absolutely true that one can find oneself utterly alone at times in this vast and dispersed metropolis. There are abundant open spaces–former industrial wastelands and abandoned railroad yards–and the grassy ribbons of land where the Wall  and death strip once ran. Berlin is still a semi-cultivated city, a wild tangle of layered past and present, resistant somehow to the homogenizing power of money, which has sanitized so many other cities, especially in western Germany.


Stasi offices and interrogation rooms – © Mitch Epstein

As much as I like the photographs in Berlin, and I applaud its overall intent, I find this an oddly incomplete book–and not just because it offers only 37 images. The historical importance of each site photographed is clearly noted and visually explicated, but sometimes I sense that Epstein could not quite find a way to express the complex nature of the Berlin he alludes to in his introduction. Epstein does provide occasional glimpses of the new Berlin, a city in the midst of civic and cultural reinvention, however obliquely. But the limited  scope of the pictures gives the book the feel of an exhibition catalogue.


Lichtenberg – © Mitch Epstein

Epstein stumbled upon the scene above. There is no specific historic site here. But we are in the heart of the city in a large open plain with communist era housing blocks in the distance. Circus elephants caper about the field as if they have been transplanted from the African Savannah. Berlin, the city, is full of these moments of lyrical strangeness–I wish there was a little more of it in Berlin, the book.

Nevertheless, there are few photographers of Mitch Epstein’s creative  intelligence and visual acuity, and those attributes are amply evident throughout Berlin.

New York/MoMA

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MoMA photography gallery — © Brian Rose

I am happy to announce that one of my photographs is on exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. The permanent collection galleries have recently been reinstalled including new acquisitions–like mine–and historic photographs. My print can be seen at right in the picture above. It is one of my recent Berlin images acquired by the museum last fall.


William Christenberry photo above, Brian Rose below — © Brian Rose


Kudzu Devouring Building, near Greensboro, Alabama, photography by William Christenberry


Mauerstrasse, Berlin, 2006 (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

My photograph is paired with one by William Christenberry, one of the pioneers of color photography, who is known, particularly, for his images of vernacular architecture, signs, and the rural landscape. A few years ago Christenberry did a series of images of structures enveloped by kudzu, the non-native vine that has become ubiquitous in the south.

There is an interesting symbiosis between the two images–a building being devoured by natural forces, and my multi-layered deconstruction of architecture in the heart of Berlin. The one concealing, the other revealing. It is also an honor to be shown with an artist of Christenberry’s stature, and in the same room with Tina Barney, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Leandro Katz, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Jan Groover, and other noteworthy photographers.


Framework Houses by Bernd and Hilla Becher — © Brian Rose

I’ve written in the past that it sometimes seems that the Bechers are overexposed. You can’t go anywhere without seeing their images, often in large grids, like the Fachwerk facades above. But let’s face it, this is brilliant work, especially this grouping. Their approach transcends genres. It is rigorous and seemingly impersonal, but in the end, suffused with pathos for human endeavor.

New York/Uniquity

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Lower Manhattan by Corinne Vionnet

Photographic plagiarism is an almost meaningless concept. I don’t mean the stealing of copyrighted images, which is generally a well-defined legal matter, but the idea that particular images of places and things are proprietary, that repeating the same view, or imitating another photographer’s compositional approach, constitutes an infringement of someone’s unique vision. It is possible to point disapprovingly at photographers who deliberately copy the work of others. You can call them unoriginal, even unethical. But it is a slippery slope to go down because the reality is that the visual world is fair game.

Corinne Vionnet’s images of popular tourist sites around the world demonstrates this well. She combines hundreds of photos available from Flickr and other photo sharing services taken from similar perspectives creating ghostly mimetics–pictures of pictures–expressing collective visual iconography.

Vionnet:

The images made by tourists are picture imitations. They demonstrate the desire to produce a photograph of an image that already exists, one like those we have already seen. It is in fact a style of manipulating the viewer. Why do we always take the same picture, if not to interact with what already exists? The photograph proves our presence. And to be true, the picture will be perfectly consistent with the pictures in our collective memory.


The Brandenburg Gate by Corinne Vionnet

I use the two image above because they include icons that have figured prominently in my own work. Although I strive for images that go beyond visual cliches, I have never entirely avoided the obvious or the commonplace. The urban landscape we live in–even the natural landscape–is to a great extent prepackaged,  designed, and pre-consumed. I consciously work with and against these structural constants, both physical and those imprinted on our brains. The pictures below could easily work into Corinne Vionnet’s Brandenburg Gate compilation.


The Brandenburg Gate, 1985 (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose


The Brandenburg Gate, 1989 (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose


The Brandenburg Gate (4×5 film) –© Brian Rose

All three of my Brandenburg Gate pictures are locked into the axial and symmetrical nature of the space and architecture, but they are all on some level meta-images, images about images, a step removed from representation of the icon itself.

As much as I feel that I own the subject of the Berlin Wall, and to a much lesser extent Berlin itself, there have been lots of other photographers who have covered the same terrain, sometimes coming up with startlingly similar images. I have known and admired John Gossage’s work since I was a student. His book The Pond has recently been re-released. I did not know, however, until a short time ago that he also photographed the Berlin Wall back in the 80s around the same time I was there. Here are two of our photographs taken from similar vantage points:


The Berlin Wall by John Gossage


The Berlin Wall (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Another photographer I greatly admire is Thomas Struth, who has photographed streetscapes and architectural subjects all over the world including Berlin. Just after the Wall came down he and I, unknowingly, both photographed along Bernauerstrasse where a wide swath of former no man’s land sliced through rows of buildings in the neighborhood Prenzlauerberg. Here are two pictures:


Photograph by Thomas Struth


Bernauerstrasse (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

The world is awash in images. Legions of photographers, professional and amateur, have fanned out across the globe to document seemingly every scrap of land and every crumbling ruin no matter how banal. For me, it is occasionally deflating, thinking about this glut of imagery. But I have been doing this for a long time, doggedly following my nose where it leads, ignoring the trends and the crowds. Sometime, when I set up my view camera, people point their cameras over my shoulder, or even stand right in front of me and take a picture of what they think I am photographing.

What to make of all these similar images of the same subjects? For one thing, they are rarely identical. A millimeter this way or that can make all the difference. The transient quality of light and atmosphere. The passing stray cat, the discarded soda can, the random interplay of people moving through the scene. All these variables give the image its uniqueness. But what’s equally important, I think, is not the individual photograph, but the gradual accretion of images made over an extended period of time by a particular photographer.

I think it’s inevitable that photographer’s paths will cross and images occasionally overlap. You can’t copyright a view, and there are a lot of 1/125ths of a second to go around. Imitators will be seen for what they are. But don’t try to steal one of my images of the Brandenburg Gate. If you don’t want to pay for the rights, you can always go to Berlin, find where I stood, and get your own Brandenburg Gate.

 

 

 

 

New York/Two Images

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I mentioned a few months ago that I was expecting the Museum of Modern Art to acquire two of my photographs. It is now official. The acquisition committee approved the purchase. This is not the first time I have sold prints to the museum. They have previously acquired images from my Lost Border/Iron Curtain series. But, I am pleased that they have now added more recent work from Berlin and Amsterdam.


Mauerstrasse, Berlin (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose
From the series Berlin: In from the Cold

Since the Wall came down I have been returning to Berlin every couple years looking at developments in the former border zone, and venturing beyond to places and themes that resonate with my earlier work. Berlin, while having undergone two waves of rebuilding–first after World War II, and then after the Cold War–remains a city of scars, of vacant land and rough edges, in which history is laid bare.

In the photograph above, the layering of eras, architectural styles, materials and objects, conspire in an almost bewildering jumble. The location is but a few steps away from Checkpoint Charlie and the trace of the former Berlin Wall. As I was walking around the area, I discovered an opening to an inner courtyard–a Hinterhof, common in Berlin–and came across this scene.

There are any number of ways I approach things as a photographer. Sometimes, the subject–a building or object–demands to be respected as is, as opposed to being integrated into a willful composition. It is the composition. One of the things I’ve learned from my experience as an architectural photographer is that sometimes–often, perhaps–one has to remain subservient to the subject. And as an artist/photographer I realize that it is not necessary, nor is it advantageous,  to attempt to reinvent the medium each time I set up my camera and release the shutter.

There are also times when the subject is illusive. It may be contained in the inchoate envelope of a space, or found in the interstices of a barely recognized structure. For me, the spacial world is always a multidimensional reality, not simply a compositional layering of one thing upon another. I see things rather as a matrix, a situation comprised of any number of anecdotal or accidental relationships. The photograph above is that kind of image. In simpler terms, it’s about how all that stuff hangs together visually–about nothing–and about something essential that defines, in this case, Berlin.


Jewish Cemetery, Amsterdam (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

For 15 years, while living in Amsterdam, I photographed the changing periphery of the city and its less determined edges. I call the series Amsterdam on Edge, which expresses not just the physical location of the photographs, but the psychological condition of a society deeply unsure of its identity and its future in a  multicultural Europe.

In exploring the outskirts of the city, I often took trams to their end points, or drove to obscure areas along the freeways. One unexpected discovery was a Jewish cemetery bisected by a train viaduct and hemmed in by a freeway and high-tension power lines. Many of the gravestones were marked Westerbork, the name of the camp that served as a way station en route to Auschwitz and other Nazi camps. Nearly 90,000 Jews, more than 10 percent of the population of Amsterdam at that time, were killed.

New York/Onward and Upward

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I have now linked my Berlin project–Berlin: In From the Cold–to my main website. The project covers the Wall, it’s demise, and the gradual re-emergence  of a new city overlaid onto the often dark history of the old. Some of the photographs were originally included in the Lost Border, but most have never before been exhibited or published.

BERLIN: IN FROM THE COLD

The entire series is also available in printed form via Blurb, the online book service. You can page through the book below, or go directly to Blurb where the book is available for purchase. This is likely be a very limited run, so I encourage you to pick one up while you can.

In other news, I am still pursuing an eventual exhibition of my Lower East Side photographs, waiting for the funding to come through for a project involving a number of photographers documenting the state of Iowa, and I just met with architect Michael Mills, and architectural historian Meredith Bzdak to discuss a possible book about the Louis Kahn bath house in Trenton, which is currently being restored.

Iron Horse at Central Station, Oakland, California, affordable housing designed by David Baker (4×5 film) – © Brian Rose

The architectural field has been hit pretty hard by the recession, which we may or may not be recovering from. But despite the drop off in work, I am hanging in there. The projects above are what I try to keep focused on, but they do not pay the bills. It’s a difficult time to be a free lance photographer, especially one specializing in architecture. But the recent trip, photographing David Baker’s brilliant housing complexes in the San Francisco Bay Area, came at a good time and was a rejuvenating experience in many ways.

I am also contemplating getting back into the studio to record some of my songs, new and old, which I have continued to write over the years. I am hoping to work with my friend Jack Hardy, the songwriter, who is an expert at guerilla recording–throwing a band together and hitting the studio. Stay tuned…  Which at this point in time is a pretty anachronistic expression.

New York/AIPAD

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AIPAD photography show — © Brian Rose

I went to the AIPAD show at the Armory with Eve Kessler and Art Presson, good friends who have a wonderful collection of photographs. It’s fun seeing what the galleries are putting forward, though not always particularly illuminating. New technology showcased by a few galleries in which still and moving images were combined was mostly embarrassing–especially in the company of classic 20th century black and white photography. Color images by Robert Voit–centrally placed cellphone towers disguised as trees–and distantly held landscapes by Sze Tsung Leong–consistent horizon line–continue the Becher inspired, gallery-friendly, trend of typologies. I like their images, but but find the approach self-limiting.

The image above by Will McBride jumped out at me because of its kinship to my own Berlin work. It’s John F. Kennedy in an open car with Willy Brandt and Konrad Adenauer in front of the recently walled off Brandenburg Gate. That photo was made in 1963. Here are two images of the Brandenburg Gate from 1989 and 2009.

The Brandenburg Gate a short time after the opening of the Berlin Wall (4×5 film)
– © Brian Rose

The Brandenburg Gate on the occasion of the 2oth anniversary of the fall of the Wall (4×5 film)
– © Brian Rose

http://www.brianrose.com/lostborder.htm

http://www.brianrose.com/infromthecold.htm

Oh, and just a little perspective on the healthcare legislation that passed Congress last night. The Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant in the subheading of its lead story states: “America took a historical step toward a European tinted healthcare system.” It may seem a radical step to some in the U.S.–but to much of the world, it’s seen as a belated catching up.

New York/Berlin: In From the Cold

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I’ve been working on my Berlin photographs since my trip there in December, which coincided with the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. I have integrated those pictures into the series, and have decided to put it all up on the web. Here is the title web page:

The website is more or less done, although the photos are not clickable for larger images yet. Nor have I linked the site to my homepage. But here is a sneak preview. Or click on the image above. UPDATE: images now clickable.

I have also updated my Blurb book proposal, which has been changed to a smaller size–8×10–and currently available for purchase as I cast about for a publisher or exhibition opportunity. The 8×10 version of the book is much more affordable, and is available in soft and hardcover. If it ever gets published it will likely end up altered in some way. So this is my unedited presentation of the photographs. Since I did the book without a graphic designer, I kept the layout simple. Feel free to preview the book below. Click on full screen to see it properly.

This website and book represent a huge effort on my part done over a long span of time–1985 to 2009. About 14 trips all together. About 1/3 of the pictures were included in the Lost Border book, but the rest have never been published or exhibited. It only became clear to me that I had a separate story focused on Berlin after I had completed the Lost Border.

I’m off to San Francisco in a few days to photograph some buildings for architect David Baker. I’ll be blogging from the Bay Area, one of my favorite places.

Berlin/Leninplatz

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Leninplatz, Berlin, 1990– © Brian Rose

Spiegel Online International:

In a sign of how time is healing Berlin’s wounds, the city plans to dig up the giant Lenin monument it famously buried in 1991 and place it in a new museum for disgraced statues. The works will span the communist and Nazi eras and date far back into Prussian times.

Full article here.

One of the things I’ve noticed in my recent trips to Berlin is a greater acknowledgment that visitors come to Berlin to see and feel history, however painful much of it may be. For years, Nazi sites were mostly unidentified, hidden. Then the Wall was hastily removed, communist monuments ripped down. Now, there is a greater openness along with regrets about what was lost. There are serious attempts to present and interpret history such as the Topography of Terror as well as kitschy Trabi rentals and fake G.I.s posing for pictures at Checkpoint Charlie. I still haven’t made up my mind about Peter Eisenman’s Holocaust Memorial, but it is irrevocably planted–a vast field of stones–in the heart of the German capitol.

New York/Berlin

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The last–probably–of the 4×5 film scans of from my recent trip to Berlin. I shot about 60 sheets of film, so there’s lots to work with. Some of these are similar to digital pics posted earlier. When things get reduced to 72 dpi, the difference between the 4×5 scans and the images made with my pocket camera can seem minimal. But I think these have greater clarity, and more presence somehow. Obviously, when printed, the difference is huge.


Alexanderplatz (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose


Alexanderplatz (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

A fascinating exhibition about the political resistance that undermined the DDR regime–and other East European countries–and helped lead to the fall of the Wall in 1989. The American and western perspective, in general, is so oriented to Cold War geopolitics, that this side of the story is almost completely ignored. It is a profound misrepresentation of history, and exhibits like this, bit by bit, offer a much needed corrective.


Niederkirchnerstrasse (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Berlin Wall marker with push button audio commentary.


Vossstrasse (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

One of the many scaffold buildings around Berlin. Some of them depict buildings to be rebuilt or reimagined, and others are simply giant canvases for advertising. A Microsoft Windows ad was on the the front side of this one, which formed part of the former, and future, streetwall of Leipziger Platz.


Topography of Terror (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose


Brandenburg Gate (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Cameras in position on December 8th, for the following evening’s event celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

New York/Berlin

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Unter den Linden (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

This is a 4×5 scan of an image seen previously. The grassy field is the site of the former Palast der Republik, East German government/cultural center. And before that, it was the site of the 18th century Stadtschloss, seen printed on fabric in the rear. The idea is to rebuild the facades of the older palace.


DDR Museum (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

The East German palace is gone–but not forgotten–and its glass facade has also been printed on fabric, hung on the structure of the temporary DDR Museum. There are such printed scaffold buildings all over Berlin.


DDR mural, Leipziger Strasse (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Very real is this mural in the former air ministry building, which was dates back to the early days of the German Democratic Republic. Here’s some information from Wikipedia:

In 1950-52 an extraordinary 18 meter long mural was created at the north end along Leipziger Straße, set back behind pillars, made out of Meissen porcelain tiles. Created by the German painter and commercial artist Max Lingner together with 14 artisans, it depicts the Socialist ideal of contented East Germans facing a bright future as one big happy family. In fact the mural’s creation had been a somewhat messy affair. Commissioned by Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl, Lingner had had to revise it no fewer than five times, so that it ultimately bore little resemblance to the first draft. Originally based on family scenes, the final version had a more sinister look about it, a series of jovial set-pieces with an almost military undertone, people in marching poise and with fixed, uniform smiles on their faces. Lingner hated it (as well as Grotewohl’s interference) and refused to look at it when going past. With a degree of irony, the building became the focal point a year later of the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany.


East Side Gallery (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

I’ve only got a few more scans to work on from my recent trip to Berlin. The photograph above was the last piece of film I shot, and shows a bit of the remaining stretch of wall called the East Side Gallery near the Ost Bahnhof in former East Berlin. The Wall along here was painted on by various artists shortly after the Wall opened up in 1989. The image of Mstislav Rostropovich performing in front of the Wall at the center of the photograph is not one of the original paintings–but I like it.

New York/Berlin

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Near the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Novevember 9, the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. This was as close as I got to the ceremony at the Brandenburg Gate. I stood for an hour in a cold steady rain with my view camera, managing to take two photographs. I like the balloons. Everyone was just waiting for the dominoes to fall, which they did a couple of hours later, well behind schedule. By that time I had retreated to a warm dry place to watch on TV.

Still more 4×5 scans to come.

New York/Berlin

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The Brandenburg Gate (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose


Wilhelmstrasse (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Continuing with 4×5 film images from the week of the 50th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Both of these were seen earlier in digital camera versions. The two pictures above key on what has become the universal symbol of the old DDR (East Germany), the Trabant. The top one is from a PayPal commercial that ran repeatedly on the big screens between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, and the bottom one is from the Trabi Safari where the now vintage cars are for rent.

Here the balloon appears slightly ominous, the world untethered, floating out of control.

New York/Berlin

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Potsdamer Platz (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Three images not shown earlier when blogging from Berlin. This one made at Potsdamer Platz, a TV boom and control booth, an image of joyous Germans climbing on the Wall in 1989, and trompe l’oeil buildings and scaffolding ads behind on adjacent Leipziger Platz.


Checkpoint Charlie (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

A crude reconstruction of the 1961 checkpoint shed with sandbags and lights–never there in the historical photos I’ve seen. Tourists pose with fake American soldiers who wave the flag around cavalierly. Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum is across the street and to the right. An image of a Soviet soldier on the left is an art piece by Frank Thiel. The other side shows an American soldier.


Watchtower/memorial (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Günter Litfin memorial, first victim of the newly erected Berlin Wall. A remaining guard tower surrounded by post 1989 housing.

New York/Berlin

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Berlin Wall dominos, Ebertstrasse (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Continuing to scan and work on my recent Berlin images.

Similar to the digital view in an earlier post, this one features the man at right, who connects visually across the frame to the face of Stalin on the left. These cloudy sky pictures take a bit of work in Photoshop since the sky has to be lower in contrast than the rest of the image. Sometimes it can be done by selecting areas, but often I put the sky on a separate layer and flatten at the end.

New York/Berlin

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Potsdamer Platz (4×5 film)– © Brian Rose

The first of the 4×5 film scanned. Compare to earlier digital snapshot below.

The day before the dominos were toppled thousands of people walked between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate. I was excited to be there, but a bit put off by the commercial nature of things–including corporate logos on some of the domino stones. Freedom won in 1989, but coporatism reigns in 2009.

Berlin/Parting Shots

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Neues Museum Colonnade — © Brian Rose


Neues Museum colonnade, 1987 (4×5 film) — © Brian Rose

Having run out of 4×5 film I took it easy on Friday. I hoped to see the Neues Museum, which has been restored with modern insertions by David Chipperfield, but the lines to purchase timed tickets for later in the afternoon were too long for me. Walking past the colonnade I photographed back in 1987, when this was East Berlin, I saw that the columns looked more or less as they did 22 years ago. Restoration was still taking place, and a part of the colonnade was under construction and would re-open soon. A black and white photograph set in the frame of the colonnade showed what lay behind it.

I was pleased to see that The Lost Border was on the shelf of the nearby Walter König bookstore, and later, I found it in Bücher Bogen as well. The latter is one of the best art/architecture/photograhy bookstores anywhere. The salesman said that they had sold seven of my books–not a lot of books–but better than average for a photography book.


Anhalter Bahnhof ruin — © Brian Rose

Heading back to my hotel I passed the nearby ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof, one of the stations employed in deporting Jews to concentration camps during the war years. The station facade once sat in vacant bombed out space, but new buildings and sports facilities have grown up around it, as well as in the open swath of former railroad tracks.


Stresemannstrasse — © Brian Rose

Between the station and my hotel there are still vacant lots–it’s surprising after all the rebuilding of Berlin how much empty space remains in the center of the city. A constant through all my travels here are small tent circuses set up in one vacant spot or another. In Wim Wender’s film Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire), one of the angels watching over the city falls in love with a trapeze artist from just such a circus located near the former Wall.

Next to my hotel was yet another circus standing in a muddy lot full of scruffy bushes and trees. I placed my point-and-shoot camera on the top of a gate, and used the self-timer to take the long exposure above. Music and crowd noises wafted from the tent off in the darkness.