Berlin 1956

Arno Fischer made this gelatin silver print called Berlin; there’s no date, but you can just tell. It’s a world of greys, this Berlin. Look at those chimneys standing like sentinels, figures perched on top. The texture in this print is remarkable. There's a roughness to the brickwork; the darks almost velvety, and the light bouncing off those chimney tops like little beacons. It feels like peering into a dream, or maybe a memory. My eye keeps going to the geometric shapes made by the bricks, how they catch the light. It’s so structural, so solid, but there’s a fragility too. Like it could all crumble at any moment. This feels like a cousin to some of the early modernist photography, like Eugène Atget’s Paris scenes, but with a tougher edge. A city holding on, showing its scars. It reminds me that art is just a way of seeing, and maybe, a way of holding on.