Hansaviertel by Gustav Hassenpflug. Berlin 2011.

Alexanderplatz. Berlin 2011

Untitled. Alexanderplatz, Berlin 2010

Biergarten, Treptow Park. Berlin 2010

Hannelore Whitley, Gropius Stadt, Berlin 2010

Hannelore Whitley is german though she speaks perfect english with an american accent. I met her on Gropius Stadt on a windy morning when I was trying to locate an enormous delirious urban and social housing development by Walter Gropius. I had been wondering the area for two days not knowing exactly how to start, what to look for and where was the site I was looking for. I´d just had a worrying phone call that shocked me so I could not gather my thoughts properly. I kept on wondering and  asking people if they knew of a big crescent shape housing state designed by the famous architect. But very few understood english and those who did  knew nothing of what I was after. So they kept on sending me back to the ugly shopping center which is also known as Gropius Stadt. It turned out that by this name is known an entire area of a disproportionate scale with gardens like forests and very dark pathways that lead to bare open greenland. Luckily a turkish woman pointed out the right direction and finally by the indications of a man that with a great emphasis equal to his sympathy- he spoke no english - explained to me in a very emphatic way that everything was Gropius Stadt and that the crescent I was looking for - I had made a drawing on the soil- it was just 500 meters away from us.

Hannelore appeared before me and I asked her if she spoke english. She nodded and confirmed that this was the building that I was looking for. Kindly she said good bye and left.

About two hours later as I was back on my foot steps towards the U-bahn we crossed again and she stopped to ask me if I had taken photographs. We began to talk and in a very natural way she began to talk to me about her life. She said to me that my english was better than hers because there has been years since she last spoke the language. She had been born in Berlin around 1934 but at the age of 13 just at the end of the war her family left to live in the Unites Sates. There she married her late husband, an army man of irish origin, a Lieutenant Colonel who was killed in the Vietnam War. She never married again and as they didn´t have any children, she decided to return to Berlin. She has been living in Gropius Stadt for 30 years now. She thought Gropius was an american and explained to her that he was German, very famous  architect that had been the founder of the even more famous Bauhaus School in Dessau but  he was exiled in the United Estates when the nazis came to power. She conceded. 

Why are you taking these pictures she asked me. And I tried to explain that I was hoping to gather some images for a project, a personal work that I am trying to do. I explained to her that I was a photographer and that it was also my passion and hobby to travel to places and my interest was to photograph where ordinary people live. I then asked her to take her portrait promising that I would send it to her. 
Do you have an email, have you access to the internet I asked. -No she said, I don´t need that. 
Have you got any family of friends whom I can send the photograph to, I asked. -No se replied calmly. My two brothers died..... -

You are alone I enquired. 
-Yes, she said.

To begin with she was reluctant with the idea of me taking her portrait but finally agreed . As she was posing for me trying to get the West Highland Terrier to sit properly ( he is deaf she informed me )  she said: -Had I known that you would be here today wanting to take my portrait, I would have gone to see my hairdresser. 

I smiled at her with gratitude as I took this picture and I promised that in my next visit to Berlin I will come to have coffee and a chat with her.

Untitled. Berlin, June 2010

Walking with Jooyoung Lee-Templehof, Berlin 2010

Out walking in Berlin with Jooyoung Lee. This is a small contribution to her personal art project. We went to Tempelhof Flughafen, the mythic airport in west Berlin which has now been abandoned, its air fields and runaways opened to the public. A competition of ideas and proposals for the landscape design and interventions is now opened. In the mean time  people go there to run, walk or  to have picnics and fly kites. Others just sit in the outskirst as they always did, chatting, drinking coffee and tea, eating Burek and remembering the Mediterranean sea back in the Bosphorus from where they came long time ago .

Alexanderplatz, Berlin 2010

Tanja Trentman, Berlin 2010

Joo Young Lee, Berlin 2010

I met Jooyoung Lee back in London when I was working at the Fine Arts department at Goldmisths College. Joo Young was an art student and she often came to the photography studio to work there. We always got on well and though we never socialized together we did keep in touch via mail. She then went back to Seoul where she lives now working as an artist.

Yesterday ten years after my first visit to the city I arrived in Berlin for a short holiday. A friend who lives here offered me to stay at her flat while she is away so I decided to take a much deserved break and managed to find a cheap flight.

Barely two hours in the city I went for a walk and to check out a beer garden with a big screen where they are showing the world cup matches. Still had some faith in Spain doing well at the tournament so as there is no TV in the house, I wanted to make sure that there was a local bar where I could watch the match against the Swiss.

I passed by a terrace right in the junction between Rosenthaler Str and Torstrase, in an area which some people say is Mitte but most regard it as Prenzlauer Berg. There I saw Jooyoung.

At first I thought her face was familiar but did not pay much attention. It took me few seconds to realized that I knew her so I turned back and went straight towards her where she was having a drink with some friends. Still doubting I instinctively extended my hand and said hi. She looked at me for a second, not understanding whether I was asking for money or trying to sell something to her. But soon se realized, recognized me and started laughing in amazement.

She is in Berlin on a residency with a grant from Korea working on a personal project. She follows people around recording their experiences of the city. So she offered me to include me in her project and to follow me for a day. The idea is that I will be talking about my impressions about Berlin, places I want to visit, things I want to photograph. Her firends suggested we should go to the old Templehof airport which I always wanted to see. Now it is abandoned and derelict and I think it can be very interesting to photograph. After ten years I am meeting Jooyoung again on Friday. Simply amazing, I know its becoming like a mantra these days but life is indeed full of surprises.

See the links below!

http://www.programonline.de/jooyounglee.html

http://incheonstories.blogspot.com/

"Views from a hotel room" Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin 2010