BERLIN
sub/ob-jective photografy

Aperti orizzonti chiusi. La grande foto è urbana, come la poesia moderna nata da Charles Baudelaire o il cinema creato dai Fratelli Lumière.

Batsceba Hardy discende da questa ispirazione primaria. La sua occasione la riapertura di Berlino, nella Riunificazione orizzonti enormi ricuciti sotto un’unica volta. Hardy fa come Dante: sulle linee di collegamento, vene della città (U-S-Bahn),  aspetta per fissare la sua “divina commedia”: anime viaggianti, volti riflessi nei finestrini, negli scomparti seduti , accostati, in fila, guardano senza sapere. Pure istantanee. Alle stazioni, le immagini sono costruite attorno a individui interi, che emergono nella solitudine, prima era l’alienazione del confondersi nella massa.

Quando riemerge in superficie o scende dal metrò, attirata dal nomadismo va incontro alla gente, uomini, donne, bambini, si mescola e percorre ogni stagione. Nel lungo inverno - fuori fa freddo! - va nei mille caffè. Lì sono assorti nella lettura o in qualche conversazione. La fotografia può concentrarsi su una vetrina o una finestra.

Omaggio a Berlino. La vita in queste forme. La città nei suoi gesti. Il bianco-e-nero antico, la sgranatura del pudore nel voyeurismo, la cagionevolezza dell’istantanea e la dura materia delle linee. Il colore addolcisce quel tanto che fa girare pagina per pagina questo viaggio.

Omaggio alla riscoperta Capitale d’Europa e a mille persone. 

Omaggio all’arte urbana, le grandi speranze di una megalopoli in viaggio.

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Where did Photography was born? In the city. Urban framings have always been the essence of Photography, from the very beginning up until now.

No wonder then that Batsceba Hardy chose to dedicate part of her work as a photographer to the exploration of Berlin, the city among the cities, that probably, historically speaking, embodies the most the eternal fracture between what's possible and what is not, what has been and what will be.

This series of photographs must be viewed in the first place as a tribute to Berlin and its inhabitants, the tourists and invisible ghosts who fill up the coffee shops and the parks at every hour of the day, or walk down the lanes, or are just caught sitting on the Underground train heading to unknown places.

The photographer -- who is also a foreigner -- acts like an invisible spectator: she catches instants and weaves them together like Penelope did, creating thus a cloth of moods and feelings, expressions and moves, nuances and colors, in the attempt of guessing what the thoughts of those around her may be.

Faces reflected in windows, children and old people, parents and singles: all kind of human beings mingled together in the crucible of urban life.

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Music video for the song "Berlin (Misconception)" by September 29th
From the album "Berlin" (2010 --- work in progress).

Video realised by Olgostin
Berlin footage by Batsceba Hardy (thank you!)
Edited by Olgostin

LYRICS:

Germany, Berlin
Friedrishstraße, in front of Dussman
A young man and his girlfriend
Don't understand
What's going on.
They look into each other's eyes
Listen to the silence behind the corner
Where solitude
Is waiting alone for you.

Ten minutes later, a Starbucks Coffee,
In Friedrichstraße
The young man enters alone.
He smiles to a waitress in red
But still doesn't know
What's going on.
He thinks that day by day
He will find what to say
He's convinced
That step by step
He'll find the right word
To fill in the gap.