“I’m never alone, I’m alone all the time”
I never thought that this lyric from the Bush song “Glycerine” would so fully encapsulate one of my days spent in Berlin. I am an extrovert by nature and have truly grown to love everyone in this study abroad and the adventures we have and will share together on this trip. However, I recharge mentally by listening to music and decompressing alone at the end of the day, or in the walk between classes when I’m in Gainesville. It was thus a major highlight of the trip when I could break off from the group for an afternoon and spend a few hours wandering the streets with my headphones in, and my mind occupied. To be able to photograph this amazing city and its captivating people as they appeared before me was the best afternoon I could have asked for.
After spending a great morning with the group getting brunch and going to an incredibly interesting, while also profoundly saddening, museum on Germany under Hitler and the unfolding of the Holocaust, I headed off to catch a bus and hopefully capture interesting moments of Berliners in their natural habitat in front of the Brandenburg Gate. A calm immediately settled over me once I had set off, as I get immense joy from being present within a new city with my favorite music serving as the soundtrack to the world around me. Once I got off the bus, I headed to a plaza in front of the gate and situated myself at a table, purchased some currywurst to feel a bit more like a local, and looked around through the viewfinder in search of a moment.
https://www.visitberlin.de/en/brandenburg-gate
These moments came to me in fits and starts, first in the shape of an interestingly dressed man falling asleep, mouth agape, on the bench in front of me, then as a street performer with an acoustic guitar entertaining a crowd of people who had gathered for the impromptu show. Like leaves falling landing on your lap from the branches of a tree one would lounge beneath, interesting people fell in front of me left and right as I continued to shoot all that I saw. A top-hat-wearing gentleman giving water to the horses leading his carriage. A group of elderly Berliners passionately dancing, blind to the on-lookers and one amazed photographer. A little girl in a bright pink shirt giggling and running carefree and guileless through the towering blocks of the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, and in doing so creating a striking juxtaposition of color and emotional weight. My subjects came and went, emerging as if from the cracks of the sidewalks or some storeroom with stocked shelves full of people Berlin wished for me to watch and capture.
https://www.stiftung-denkmal.de/en/memorials/the-memorial-to-the-murdered-jews-of-europe.html
“I’m alone all the time”
Whenever I travel, I aim to disappear into the fabric of the city and be an observer of the wonders that happen every second in a place like Berlin. To the people I photograph, I perhaps elicit a nod of the head, a quick smile, a quizzical glance, or a blank stare before they are preoccupied once again with their day-to-day lives. However, for me, these people are what have made me fall in love with this city and reaffirms my burning desire to live in Europe and be able to walk as an observer for more than a few snatched away hours in the day.