Description
One of the aspects that I love the most about photography is when you unexpectedly look at something that has always been there, but with a completely different perspective. As I wrote in ‘Berlin II’, I found myself missing the darkness and the moody winter weather. But at the same time, the willingness to keep creating was bigger, so I hit the streets. And ‘Berlin III’ happened on that same day.
I was already very happy with that first capture, so that gave me an extra boost to keep going. At some point later in the day, I thought of this new building that had just opened to the public, the Humboldt Forum. As the sun was still very intense, I knew that there was a big chance for another interesting ‘shadow/light’ moment, so I got really excited. Almost as I had already created the image in my mind. But long story short, it was a failure. As this was my first visit to this new spot, and despite my best hopes, I had no idea how the light was going to behave. The inner square of the building, an open air area that I thought of exploring because I had seen in photos before, was already too dark. But then comes the unexpected moments that offer you a new angle.
I left the building disappointed and started walking with no destination. I thought I was done, put my camera in the bag. A kind of a bittersweet taste as I didn’t want to finish the day with a photo that didn’t happen, you know? But not even 5 minutes later, as I walked past the backstreet of one of Germany’s government buildings, I noticed something and came back. A very quiet area that I’ve passed many times before, but mostly at night, so never really paid too much attention to. On that moment, everything felt different. The curve shaped building in the shade looked stunning, powerful in a way. I knew that that would already create an interesting sense of scale for the composition by going low angle - I actually sat on the middle of the street to get as low as possible. Then, the light! Because of the back entrance of the building, which is open air, a streak of light would create this separation between the darker and brighter areas. When people passed through it, they would shine for less than a second before moving on with their lives. That was it. I had it.
On that day, the photograph that I didn’t take led me to the one that I proudly add to this collection now. And thanks to an obsession to finding new perspectives, the journey continues.
June 9th, 18:41:32, 2021. Berlin, Germany.