Stay at Home: Portraying Berliners through their Windows

Stay at Home: Portraying Berliners through their Windows

photos: Lovis Ostenrik. 

These last couple of weeks it became almost a mantra: Stay at home! Angela Merkel said it, viral expert Drosten said it, your mom said it, we said it. It’s in everyone’s ears, and in everyone’s mouths.

But what does “staying at home” mean for everybody? It’s certainly not the same for everyone. If you’re living alone in a dark studio apartment in the backyard it can certainly start to feel claustrophobic at some point. But if you’re lucky to live in a big bright Altbau with balcony (or even better: a garden) together with loved ones, it can also be pretty ok in the end. No matter if it’s a big sacrifice or just a small one, the importance as one of the most significant measures to battle this pandemic cannot be denied.

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The Unexpected Comfort of the Mundane Life at Home

The Unexpected Comfort of the Mundane Life at Home

photos: Roger Sabaté

What a fucking rollercoaster ride. I’m sure most of you will agree that the last 3 weeks have been some of the most intense ones we’ve all lived through. It’s hardly an exaggeration that what’s happening right now is the biggest shared global experience since… ever? I don’t even think the world wars actually immediately effected every single country in the world as this pandemic does. And I guess even previous outbreaks didn’t reach as far and as fast because back then the world was just much less connected than it is now.

But while it’s crazy outside in the world, what most people are really experiencing right now is actually happening on a much smaller landscape. For us, everything’s going down now in our own four walls. And unless you are still working and have not been confined to the home office, the longest way you walk from there is probably the small number of blocks you have to pass to reach your nearest supermarket. Our world feels like it shrunk remarkably.

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Dystopian Berlin – Photos of an Empty City

Dystopian Berlin – Photos of an Empty City

photos: Robert Kleinfeld. 

Berlin is a city, that is always busy, day and night. Usually. Of course, right now is an exception. These are unusual times. Even though most of us are confined to our homes, some of us still have a duty to keep on going outside to work.

Photojournalist Robert Kleinfeld is one of them. On the height of the Berliner’s discipline to stay insight he took to the streets to capture an empty city, empty subways, empty streets. It looks pretty much like the set for a dystopian movie where most of humankind has vanished. Only a few lonely souls left. It has such an eerie vibe that we never would have expected to see our beloved colorful Berlin in.

We don’t want to dwell too much on the situation. I think the last couple of weeks have given us plenty to worry and think about. But things will improve, we know it. Maybe not as soon as we hope, maybe not within a day. But soon enough. Let these captured moments of a deserted Berlin be a reminder of how fragile our world actually is, and that we can’t take the smallest things for granted.

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Art in Times of Quarantine – Red Rubber Road

Art in Times of Quarantine – Red Rubber Road

photos: Red Rubber Road. 

One of our Uncensored Berlin artist duos has come out with a photo series that could not be more fitting for our current situation. It was actually done years before the pandemic and is part of the ongoing project Red Rubber Road by photographers AnaHell and Nathalie Dreier.

Back in 2018 Ana suffered from a serious illness and was kept in quarantine in the infectious disease isolation ward at the military hospital in Berlin for several weeks. Visitors had to wear protective gear which created quite the nightmarish atmosphere. This also inspired the idea to continue their Red Rubber Road series right there in the isolation ward on one of Nathalie’s visits. The staged self-portraits have a quite playful and humorous vibe which helped them to lighten up the oppressive mood.

The artists decided to release the series in light of the current situation to show the optimism that creativity can provide during moments of disease and isolation.

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Bell Collective: The New Female Travel Photography

Bell Collective: The New Female Travel Photography

photo: Alina Rudya. 

The times when travel photography – or any other field, for that matter – were strictly men’s’ domain are gone. And yet there are still instances when following your passion as a female is synonymous with challenging the status quo. The new photography book by the Bell Collective is a celebration of 14 bold women who are truly carving their own paths across the globe and documenting this journey with pictures on Instagram.

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The Berlin Experiment – Exploring History Through Photography

The Berlin Experiment – Exploring History Through Photography

photoMichael Beaton / CC 

Berlin’s image keeps on inspiring photographers. Apart from showcasing many awesome Instagram accounts presenting the capital in all of its current diversity, we love finding projects that visually combine the city’s past and present, just like the fantastic series refilm.io, initially inspired by the movie ”Wings of Desire”. Today, we want to present a collection that includes fewer photographs but is nevertheless a meticulous visual homage to the city we love. Read on to see more works from Michael Beaton’s ”The Berlin Experiment”!

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A Review of the Like A Berliner Book Launch Party

A Review of the Like A Berliner Book Launch Party

This was fun! On Friday we launched our new book Like A Berliner that we’ve been working on for the past 3 years with illustrator Sophia Halamoda and that is available to order now in our new online shop. We had the incredible honor of doing our party at Kantini in collaboration with Bikini Berlin. It was such a match made in heaven – the wonderful design of the place mixed with the cute illustrations of Sophia that we pasted all over the place.

To make the evening extra special we invited a couple of really unique performers to embody the spirit of our book and take our guests by the hand to make some memorable experiences. From Jennifer Aniston tarot readings by Esben Holk, to anti-confessions with Olympia Bukkakis, tactile sensations with crochet artist Anto Christ, fetish research with drag queen Purrja, and unsolicited plant advice by Miss Poppy Cox – there was something for everyone – and it was great fun. As a special treat, we invited The Darvish to give us a little belly dance, and boy did he deliver!

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