shashasha

There was a wall. Then the wall came down. Has the wall disappeared?

Japanese photographer first visited Berlin in 1983, during a time when it seemed impossible that the wall dividing West Germany and East Germany would ever come down. In his photobook “Berlin,” Tsuchida juxtaposes photographs taken during different eras in Berlin with each other. Divided into three parts, he compares Berlin in 1983 and 2009 using photographs taken at the same places during those years. Part two reveals a larger context, including photographs from 1983, 1999 (after construction in Berlin kicked into gear), 2000, and 2009. The last part focuses more on Berlins more recent development, focusing on photographs from 2009 and 1999.

“As though keeping a distance from his subject, Tsuchida photographs the scars and the labored attempts to hide them. His eye shows absolutely no interest in the remarkably beautiful buildings, trees, and tree-lined avenues that do exist in this city (despite the sense that something is amiss and the memories of past massacres that also pervade it)…
That is the Berlin of today. This is a book of photographs that is essential for anyone who would think about that division and the strained attempts to patch it over.”
— from Kenichi Mishima’s essay “‘Homage’ to Berlin”

All texts included in Japanese and English translation.