Berlin 1982

This black and white photograph, “Berlin,” by John Gossage, captures a very specific slice of space and time. I think about the Berlin Wall in all its stark, imposing reality, and how Gossage found this particular angle. He’s not just showing us a wall; he’s layering it with foliage, with life pushing up against this concrete barrier. It reminds me of certain painters, like Cy Twombly, who layered marks and scribbles to make a kind of history painting. The way the trees reach up, desperate for light, is just beautiful and so sad, like they're in conversation with the wall itself. You can sense the artist's eye searching, finding beauty in the overlooked, and making a statement about division and resilience, all in one frame. Artists do that – we find ways to talk to each other, across time and space. They show us what we might otherwise miss, and they keep the conversation going.