Thomas Meyer: Photographs from the wall strip until June 28th in Berlin!

Thomas Meyer: Photographs from the wall strip until June 28th in Berlin!

In the Albrecht gallery in Berlin, photographer Thomas Meyer presents his impressive works that were created between 1998 and 2001. The exhibition "Mauer Land" impressively shows the wall strip as a fallow in a city. While new skyscrapers are being built in the area and Potsdamer Platz is already built on, Meyer is documenting a scenery that is characterized by brown lumps of earth, fences and overgrown areas. These pictures capture the upheaval situation of the years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in which people are rarely shown and instead the focus is on the landscape changes. The photographs became known to a wider audience by a group exhibition by the Ostkreuz agency in 2022 and have gained importance since then. According to the Tagesspiegel are the prices for the work between 2600 and 6000 euros.

Thomas Meyer, born in Delmenhorst in 1967 and trained at the University of the Arts Bremen, has been a member of the Ostkreuz agency since 2000 and teaches regularly there. His special connection to the Berlin photographer scene is illustrated by its approach to the subject of wall strips. With his photographs, which offer an almost archaeological perspective on the former border area, it is part of a long tradition of photographers who document the changing cityscape. The exhibition in the Albrecht gallery is still open until June 28th, Tuesday to Saturday from 12 to 6 p.m. The talk will be particularly interesting on June 13th at 7 p.m., in which Meyer will speak together with the painter Sabine Herrmann.

The era of the 90s

The 1990s mark a time of upheaval and creativity in Berlin. This period was particularly formative for photographers because photography in clubs was unproblematic. Many artists did not have to register or were of little interest in the presence of the photographers. However, these times changed with the advent of smartphones and social media. The changes in photography can also be felt in the work of Meyer, who worked in an era, in which visual documentation assumed new dimensions. According to a Article on the Berlin art scene , the commercialization of the subculture increased in these years, which changed photography in clubs and parties.

Once a photographer like the author of the article could have gone to the club safe to document the legendary love parade, without much effort. These different experiences not only illustrate the development of photography, but also the cultural climate of this exciting time in Berlin. With the closure of gaps in Berlin's history and the constant change in the urban landscape, Thomas Meyer's photographic work becomes all the more meaningful.