Berliner Luft takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the city’s sights. The emphasis is not on landmarks like the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the Tiergarten, and the Reichstag. Like the photographs themselves, the point of view is eccentric, intimate, and rather dark. Several of the photos focus on East Berlin with an innocent Cold War nostalgia. They document an underground operating theater, a bomb shelter, the Stasi Museum, and a number of kitschy military monuments.

The most powerful photographs spotlight older venues that possess a shabby grandeur, that have been battered around a bit but are still getting along quite nicely. There’s a disheveled ballroom, a lounge decorated in garish 1960’s fabrics and patterns, and a wood-paneled tavern that look as if it’s centuries old. Berlin’s mayor, Klaus Wowereit, once explained that his city was “poor but sexy.” The photos in Berliner Luft capture this ambiance perfectly, projecting a knowing authenticity as well as a ripe street glamor. In that way they offer a perfect description of this tough, vibrant city.

Berliner Luft