Berlin, Germany

This took some time to edit as well as write up. The current Berlin that we all know of - the underground parties, freedom of expression, safe haven for many different subcultures, capital city of one of the world biggest industrial and most developed countries are just one small part of this continuously evolving city. But these are only a couple of aspects, the amount of historical relevance Berlin has on the world was what I wanted to experience. Whenever I photograph, as cliche as it sounds - I want to be aroused, I want to be interested, I want to be deep in it. Berlin made me feel those emotions but rather differently from say places like Prague, Paris, Rome that I visited. Firstly I don’t know why, I remember the first couple of hours there reminded me of Singapore - trains and modernity of the way the society was but as I would realise the next morning, it’s very different from Singapore. 

As we all know, just over three decades ago - Berlin Wall existed (also known as the ‘Wall of Shame’ as was to restrict freedom of movement). I partially think that because of that - the city is one of the most culturally diverse in the world. However, walking around the city reminds one of it’s dark past - something I feel the Germans have done really well to repent and move on from in a very sincere manner.

The first place obviously I visited was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Holocaust Memorial) - I found it really interesting that they built it in a very commercial area (Brandenburg Gate was to it’s North and it was very near the British and American Embassy). The 2711 concrete slaps of different heights make up the memorial and there is a museum underneath - I photographed the slabs quite extensively - there was kids playing all around, there was Jewish people reading the Torah, there were people reflecting. It’s Hard to find a word that can actually describe the emotion witnessing all this going on simultaneously. The museum was deeply moving - the diary accounts of the victims was painful, it’s hard to believe that these atrocities happened less than 100 years ago. I enjoyed the whole experience there. As we finished the museum tour, I discovered there was an Iraqi protest against the Iraqi government - I followed them for quite a while - it was quite enriching, very organised protest and people didn’t seem to shy away from their photographs being taken. They ended up walk to the Brandenburg Gate where I saw there were ‘protests’ by other groups as well - the Anonymous, for the LGBTQ+ and many others. Again there was these different protests going on and then on the other hand there were tourists doing their own thing and everything seemed normal. And walking all over the city, you would notice the numerous crosses, pictures, flowers for the fallen which gave a grim reminder of people who lost their lives. I wonder what the locals think about that or are they already used to seeing it everyday.

I did photograph the other attractions - Museum Island, walking outside the Reichstag Building (I wanted to go in but you needed to buy tickets in advance) and patronising the Prenzlauer Berg. All in all, like all the other places I travel, I definitely felt I needed more time to understand the place but I glad it made it feel different, something hard to describe. I think it would be hard to distill Berlin into an emotion, but it’s definitely a place people should visit once in their lives.