Thomas at "Handbestand"
Thomas is the owner of a a cafe close to my apartment in Berlin called "Handbestand". Here he combines his love for antique books with very good coffee. The other day I asked him if I could take a portrait of him and was very happy that he agreed. See a short video of Handbestand here, check out their Facebook page here. It is a great place for having coffee, checking out old books, political discussion and epic chess battles that I unfortunately lose 99% of the time. But there is hope on the horizon! Thomas is my new chess coach.
Ich bin ein Berliner!
Two years after leaving New York I've finally arrived! Now I'm officially a Berlin photographer. Many thanks to Jens Hohmann for featuring me on his photography blog www.ontai.de.
Lichtgrenze
Who didn’t experience it can’t imagine what it meant to have Germany’s biggest city and former capital separated by a 66 mile long, 12 ft high wall for 28 years. The Wall essentially made West Berlin an island, tore families and friends apart, cut off streets and subway lines and imprisoned people who lived in the East. The Wall was erected to prevent a “brain drain” in the East. Young, well educated people tended to emigrate to West Germany in the 1950’s, while the boarders were still open, because of the better living conditions in the West.
Nothing to gain and nothing to lose!
As tough as it was to leave the Big Apple behind, as much it also has freed me. I wrote in past blog post (you can go to the archive here) a lot about the ego. I spoke about how it is created and sustained but also about how to let parts of the illusionary self go. When I left the city I realised how much my self identity and New York City were tightly fused together. If, even only two years ago, somebody would have asked me if I would ever consider leaving the city, my answer would have been “never”.