European Month of Photography

© Peter Lindbergh 

By a happy coincidence I am in Berlin while the European Month of Photography is on. I have to admit I'd never actually heard of it - apparently it's the fourth - but it turns out it's a bit of a gem. Basically, photography has taken over the galleries of the city. There's a little booklet, a website & an iPhone app that list photo exhibitions on subjects as diverse as the changing face of the centre of Berlin over the last 170 years and colourful electron microscope photography of tiny bugs blown up to be the size of monsters.

© Sebastian Klug

There are so many exhibitions it's impossible to see them all but a couple of my favourites so far have been Sebastian Klug's photos of nightlife in Berlin taken on a mobile phone - I think it captures the feeling of clubbing more completely than any other exhibition I've seen; and Ortzeit, a collection of pairs of photos by Stefan Koppelkamm of streets in East Germany: the earlier pictures were taken just after the fall of the wall, and the later ones anything from 10 to 14 years later. It really encapsulates the dramatic change (and in some case the dramatic stagnation) that has occurred in this part of the world over the last two decades.

 

© Stefan Koppelkamm

The other great thing about this set of exhibitions is that it gives you the chance to go into all sorts of galleries and museums that you would probably never visit otherwise - the German post museum anyone? If you find yourself in this part of the world between now and February (despite being called a Month many events are going on far longer) I urge you to check out at least one or two of these great shows.