The view from Berlin
After more than 50 years, Berlin has again become the capital of Germany. With roughly 600 square kilometers and 3.5 million inhabitants, Berlin is as large and important a city as New York, Paris, London, or Tokyo. Some say it is now the newest and most dynamic city in all of Europe. Yet when one steps off of the main streets and boulevards, away from the beaten pathways, and into the rest of the city, another side quickly reveals itself: that of a quiet isolated village.
While living and working in Berlin in 1998, I began to explore this other face of the city. I was continually intrigued that such a contrast of experiences could occur only meters away from (and sometimes directly in) the most public of places. I became especially intrigued by how Berlin's population moved through their immediate surroundings, and the implied physical, aesthetic, and emotional relationships they hold to their particular urban environment.
Berlin is a city steeped in history, much of it quite familiar. I believe you can sense this in the people. Everyone has a fascinating and different story to tell; each person's body language an allusion to his or her individual narrative experience. Observing the way people move through the city, going about their daily lives, is like watching individual histories play out before our eyes.