Berlin, which has become the centre of attraction on Europe in the recent years, is also a very colourful city in terms of art.  It is always possible to see exhibitions that will grab your attention in the galleries and museums of all sizes, which spread different parts of the city.

It would not be possible to skip photography exhibitions, when I was exploring Berlin in June.  Here is the short notes on the exhibitions of photographers from three different generations and three different genres, which shine out from a long list:-Philip Lorca diCorcia’s ‘Hustlers’, Christopher Anderson’s ‘Son’ ve Andrés Galeano’s ‘Unknown Photographers'

The end of the American dream

Philip-Lorca diCorcia (1951)'s 'Hustlers' series, which was realized in the beginning of 1990s in Los Angeles and previously called 'Hollywood', is about men, who came to Hollywood with the dream of becoming famous, yet not being able to accomplish their aim, became prostitutes. 'Hustlers', which turned into a book in the honour of twentieth year of being exhibited since its first exhibition in MoMA in 1993 and began to be exhibited again in various places, was in one of the elite galleries of Berlin called Sprüth Magers. (1) As well being the work of diCorcia's that made him famous, 'Hustlers' is also a milestone in type of work that today we take for granted, in which street and stage, fiction and life intertwine into each other.

For 'Hustlers', diCorcia prepares settings in public environments such as hotel rooms, car parks or bus stops, where he adjusts the light and space by making his assistant pose. After preparing the setting, he goes down to Santa Monica Boullovard (we can say that it is the mixture of İstiklal Street and Abdi İpekçi Street) to find the male prostitutes and makes a deal with them: He pays the minimum price that they get for sex - take their pictures, instead of sex. He takes the photographs of the ones, who accept this offer and pay their fee with the bursary that he got from National Endowment for Arts in 1989. The titles of the photographs are formed of the posing person's name, age, place of birth and the price he accepted to be posed. 'Hustlers', which is the result of exchange in between the photographer and the men, who came to Hollywood with a desire to become actor, yet can not accomplish this aim and has to prostitute himself for price as low as 23-30 dollars by playing the role of male stereotypes in Hollywood movies while recreating these stereotypes over and over again, fell right into the environment that has a tendency for censorship in the beginning of 1990s' America.

A muscled black man, who is possibly smiling to his client on the bed, standing by the door of a hotel room, where a TV with Cosbies' is on; another one, who laid down, dreaming on the pavement, where John Lennon's star is on or another one, who is looking through a shop windows, where consumption icons of American culture such as hamburger, coffee and jukebox are lined up... These cinematographic photographs, which look like scenes from a movie, showing the reality of Hollywood against the American dream that is being experienced by a limited group, are still very fresh and impressive even in their twentieth year.

The pure beauty of family life

Christopher Anderson (1970) is a documentary photographer, who made his breakthrough in the international arena in 1999 with the photographs he has taken on the journey that he took with Haitian refugees on a handmade boat to America, which ended up in the cold waters of Caribbean Sea.  Winning ‘Robert Capa Gold Medal' in the year 2000 with the photographs that he calls as ‘experiential documentary’ and alluding the manifestation of emotionally charged documentary style as the distinguishing feature of his work, Anderson is one of the most productive name of generation, who takes photographs in many conflicting places. He is even a member of the castle of Magnum Photos. But, with the birth of his first child in 2008, he moved away from the war areas, which he was inspired for years, and has turned his camera to his own home and his family. In the end, his work titled as ‘Son’ , which is formed of cosy photographs displaying the pure beauty of family life and the relationship that comes with it 

'Son', which is also published as a book in October 2013, was being exhibited in the project space of Hamburg originated Robert Morat Galerie in Berlin.  (2) These are photographs, which contain the mutual feeling in many of the private life photographs and do not have any difficulty to pass this feeling to the audience. A kid riding his tricycle with a weepy face; a mother with a Superman vest and a dummy in her mouth; forgotten the existence of the camera, naked mother and son watching outside from a room washed with day light; an old father who is having chemotherapy; city view, clouds, trees seen from the windows of the house... Peaceful and tense details related to life... 

With Anderson's own words: "These photographs are an organic reaction to one of the experiences, which can be unique and universal - a birth of a child.  When I was filled with the intense happiness of the new era of my life, my father was diagnosed with cancer. I found myself noticeably thinking about the themes of life and death.  My role as a son had a different meaning through my son and my feelings for the evidence regarding my life is flying by, has become very intense. In the end these photographs emerged somehow. These are reflections on the seasonal cycle of love and life."

'Son', in which the emotional intensity that comes to forefront in Anderson's documentary photography, is observed more, can be seen as a statement related to find his path in this new world that he is creating with his own hands. 'Son', which is universal as well as personal, is a candidate to be one of the most successful examples of this genre.

'New' photographs created from old photographs

Andrés Galeano (1980) is an artist, who had photography training after studying philosophy and produces work on various mediums such as art, video, installation and performance. Collecting old photo albums from flee markets or the forgotten basements of Berlin for the last two years, Galeano is creating new photographs by gathering them without cropping or manipulating these found photos. In this way the photographs taken by the photographers that we do not know the names of, start to have a conversation with each other and gain new meanings. 'Unknown Photographers' that is formed by these 'new' photographs with an iconographic method of Galeano, was being exhibited in one of Berlin's new and sincere photography spaces called pavlov's dog.  (3)

The images, which are made by the utmost banal, even funny repetitive details, mistakes or situations overlapping each other, gain an extra abstract level when they are all together and although they look surprising and interesting for the audience, they do not look artificial. These snapshots, taken by the photographers, who do not know each other, look as if they were created to be gathered together. On top of that the pictures, forming the poetic and surrealist compositions of Galeano, manage to physically exist on their own as if they were underlining the fact that the reason for them to be together is only temporary and accidental. In other words, they are both meaningful individually and all together.

When Galeano is re-assessing the photographs in the old family albums, he realizes them in a physically recyclable way as well. Nowadays, when we have almost forgotten to form physical family albums, he transforms the photographs in the old family albums without completely removing them; gathers them only for presentation and he -in a sense- crowns the family albums. Just like the collector/artist who works with old/found photographs...

Notes:

(1) Sprith Magers is a gallery, formed by the union of two Cologne originated galleries in 1998 and having a branch in London and represent many important names from Cindy Sherman to Andreas Gursky, from Stephen Shore to Thomas Demand. http://www.spruethmagers.com/

(2) Robert Morat Galerie is a gallery, which has two galleries in Hamburg and exhibits twentieth century and contemporary photography. There are international names such as Joakim Eskildsen, Peter Granser, Simon Robers and Bertien van Manen among the photographers it represents. http://www.robertmorat.de/

(3) pavlov’s dog: a young photography gallery formed in 2011. Exhibiting examples of contemporary photography, the gallery has an active structure with film screenings, workshops and portfolio assessments.  http://www.pavlovsdog.org/