Desire in Berlin
During the late 80’s and early 90’s I lived in the eastern part of Berlin. It was a time of changes, there was still a lot of the GDR left but on the other hand there was perspective for change and a new beginning. East Berlin remained gray, without advertisements and neon signs – it was much more quiet and unexciting than it is today. Most houses looked older than they were, and some were so dilapidated that they were uninhabitable. This was my photographic paradise. The skylights of apartment buildings and the rooftop landscapes of the tenements of the city immersed in a hazy yellow light of the rising sun. I loved to go with my models to these scenes and take nude pictures, because nudity in this city was a form of freedom and independence. While making these pictures, I was stimulated by the contradiction of hard stone and soft skin. At the same time I was appealed by the hardness and coolness of the ailing city scapes in contrast to an unclothed body - despite a self confident display it always showed it’s vulnerability; the thick house walls become Kafkaesque symbols for protection and confinement at the same time. Many Berliners, in particular young people I met and worked with, were affected by a calm desire. Just like them, I was looking for something that I had not yet experienced and that I could not verbalize because no one knew if it even existed. Today I feel in these city views, portraits and arranged stories, stronger than ever, this imaginary desire.