Word on the Street
Photo Story by Ben Golik ON ONE HAND, it has the historic and cultural hallmarks you expect of a long-standing European capital. On the other, it’s a city being reshaped by a new, united generation.
Berlin is at once over 700 years old and 22 years young. Former and future rub up against each other on the city’s streets. And as with all friction, this releases energy.
Berlin is buzzing. Cheap rents fuel a vibrant art scene. The former “death strip” is now alive with public spaces, and graffiti splatters streets and buildings with vivid color.
What better way to capture this shifting cityscape than with the urban stylings of Ben Watts’ Big Up film (softened with the Loftus lens) and a few snaps through the Salvador 84 lens to throw a new spin on those older icons.
The city’s rebirth is best summed up on a building in the old East. It is painted with bold typography that, translated, says, “This house used to be in another country.”
When the Wall was up, advertising hoardings were erected as placards for propaganda. Today, words again dominate the urban landscape. Berliners are finding their new voice. And this time their canvas is the city itself.
The Wall might have come down, but Berlin is still a city of two halves. Not East and West, but rather the tension between established stalwart and adolescent upstart.
