Photographing The East Side Gallery In Berlin, Germany
This portrait is a wonderful example of Street Art at the East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany.
At 1,316 meters long the East Side Gallery is a popular tourist destination in Berlin. I traveled to Berlin in 2016 and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the art work on display.
In 2009, twenty years after its foundation, the East Side Gallery was completely renovated. And a good thing to given it’s said that 800,000 visitors each year visit this visually interesting historical site.
I believe the actual border, between East and West German, at this point was actually the River Spree which is a short distance from the East Side Gallery. You can find it on Mühlenstrabe in the central Berlin district of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg.
The artist Birgit Kinder's painting of a soviet manufactured Trabant car breaking through the Berlin Wall shows a license plate displaying the date the wall fell.
This above image features a Trabant, better known as a Trabi, a popular vehicle in soviet occupied East Germany. Apparently, while not a terribly reliable car, it was considered a source of freedom for folks on that side of the border.
The artist Birgit Kinder depicts the Trabi breaking through the wall. The licence plate on the Trabant shows the date the Berlin Wall finally fell and the freedom that represented for many thousands of East German citizens.
This excellent example of street art at the East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany is a painting by Kani Alavi, an Iranian born artist depicting people breaking through the wall.
The painting by artist Kani Alavi, an Iranian who moved to West Berlin in 1980, depicts faces breaking through the wall. I find it to be a very poignant image, particularly as most of the faces appear to be expressing negative emotions. No doubt representing the anxiety associated with their ordeal.
If you travel to Berlin I’d certainly recommend an exploration, with camera in hand, of the wonderful East Side Gallery.