Culture

European Month of Photography in Berlin

From euphoria to disillusionment

Curator Florian Ebner is explaining 'Cairo. Open town ' - one part of the exhibition taking place near the Brandenburg Gate. The exhibit depicts the euphoric beginnings of the revolution, which brought together people from all walks of life at Tahrir Sqaure, but also the victims of state violence. Images by photo journalists hang alongside those of activists taken with their mobile phones.

European Month of Photography in Berlin

Phones for resistance

Images like the one this man is taking, depicting the revolution in Cairo, went viral on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Some people wanted to simply show that they were there, while others collected the photos to prove that Egypt's state media was not reporting the whole story.

European Month of Photography in Berlin

Memories of Beijing

Chinese photographer Wang Fang, who has lived in Germany for many years, shows the developments in her hometown in "Beijing Memories." With a glance from a distance, she shares her recollections of a once familiar place. Bicyclists like this one can still be found, but today the image is an anachronism from a bygone time.

European Month of Photography in Berlin

London in Berlin

Up until the early 1990s, British, French, Americans and Russians lived in the sectors of Berlin which their respective countries administrated. With their families, they lived the same way they would have in their home countries. It was a parallel world, which the Berliners only occasionally caught a glimpse of - like, for example, at military parades.

European Month of Photography in Berlin

New neighbors

Under this motto "Foreign in their own country," students of the private photography school f16 took photos to document the lives of Berlin migrants. This collection provides insights into the daily lives of people who are often talked about, but whom few really know. Thisimage of a Muslim burial poses the question of who is more "foreign" - the participants or the photographer?

European Month of Photography in Berlin

What others dream of

The further away you are, the easier it is to create your own image of "the other." Europeans, for example, still romanticize Native Americans and North Americans dream of the Roma as the last nomadic people, living almost like people did in the Wild West. Two photographers traveled to North America and Romania to capture some subjective and humorous moments from the two groups.

European Month of Photography in Berlin

A unusual perspective

Experimental works also have their place at this festival. This work, "Down Under," shows a living room which appears to implode, like being sucked into a black hole. Photographer Michael H. Rohde turns gravity and perspective upside down, so that the viewer confusingly sees the kitchen from below, where - strangely - everything is in its proper place.

European Month of Photography in Berlin

Between trauma and hope

The Second Gulf War in the early 1990s brought a flood of images that were mostly all the same: burning oil wells and blurry infrared pictures. For Iraqi photographer Al Fadhil, the war marked the time his work became more political. This photo was taken in the 1970s, before he emigrated from Iraq.

Author: Andrea Kasiske / crl | Editor : Kate Bowen