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.
Read on…
by Frank | Photos
We all know the glossy Instagram accounts that almost make you think Berlin is a permanently sunny resort where all you see are fit yogis running around with their cute puppies and the occasional elderly couple sitting on a bench in Tiergarten. Well, one look out of the window will suffice to realize that the reality is not all that ideal. But we love that about Berlin – its unpredictable weather, extraordinary characters, and the fact that some corners can get a bit rough. We found three Instagrammers that celebrate those characteristics of our beloved city – and provide a much-needed antidote to the pointless strive for perfection.
Read on…
by Michalina | People, Photos, Stories
photos: Tania Strauss
My story is not different from anyone who has moved to Berlin and got stung by its venom. The venom is strong enough to infect you and leave you alive with its side effects, happily suffering. My friend describes it as “Berlin biting you in the ass”. This is quite accurate. You see a bite in the ass leaves a mark, a literal mark and a feeling. So does Berlin.
I moved to Berlin exactly 300 days ago. Just writing this is making it even harder to believe. 300 days. That is the longest I have ever been away from home. Well, I am kind of confused now as to where home is, but Berlin seems the most appropriate next to this word. I have found a home in the coldest, greyest, probably cruelest city in Germany. It is also the coolest, most liberal, accepting and very different from the rest of Germany.
Read on…
by Guest Author | Photos, Stories
photos: Sascha Kohlmann / CC
There are these times – especially when adulthood seems to be overwhelming and I am supposed to pretend to be an adult among others who are trying to fake it until they make it -, when I reminisce the old days, when I was a child unaware of the grown-up world and its tedious complexity; when my deepest frustration would revolve around my aversion to the lunch my dad had prepared for me that day and my biggest joy would be Santa’s advent with his presents. I am inclined to believe that it is a universal tendency to look back at the past with nostalgia and think how beautiful it all was back then. This kind of nostalgia is the feeling that takes over when I see Sascha Kohlmann’s pictures of old gumball machines. I automatically have to think of my mom bringing me home after kindergarten and me stopping her on the way to ask her if I could have a gumball, which back then meant the world to me. What memories do gumball machines bring up to you?
Read on…
by Nikos | Photos
photos: Katja Hentschel
There was a time when street style was totally a thing. Every major city had a street style blog (or many) and of course also Berlin. But the trend had faded over the years a bit and many blogs stopped posting or changed their editorial concepts. Thanks to Instagram and success projects such as Humans of New York (and other cities that followed) street portraits totally had a comeback!
Glamcanyon used to be one of the major street style blogs (and to me personally the most beautiful one) in the early days of fashion blogs in Germany, but the flow of new styles dried up a bit a few years ago. Back then the blogger behind it, photographer Katja Hentschel, shifted her focus to other projects such as her follow-up blogs Travelettes and Glowbus. But a few months ago her passion for street portraits came back to life and she decided to revitalize Glamcanyon. Now you can again regularly find her beautiful photos of beautiful people from Berlin and other cities that she comes to. But with the new photos you can see how the eye of the photographer has developed over the years. Now it’s not anymore purely about the looks, it’s also about the personality of the portrayed person and the moment they had with the photographer. Absolutely charming! We selected some of our favorites from Berlin for you today.
Read on…
by Frank | Fashion, People, Photos
photos: Friedrich Seidenstücker
If you think about Berlin in the 1920s today, there are a lot of clichés and stereotypes that come to your mind: the „dance on the volcano“, women with short hair, feather boas and cigarette holders, and men wearing suspenders and flat caps.
But the „Roaring Twenties“ were a much more complex time period. In fact, it was just a small circle that was partying in the hedonistic way we like to remember. The ordinary life was much different to that. In November of 2011 there was a great exhibition about Friedrich Seidenstücker running at Berlinische Galerie that shows exactly that: the everyday life in Berlin in the 1920s und 1930ies. Have a look for yourself after the jump.
Read on…
by Jens | Art
