Berlin Street Photography & Writing | Sean P Durham

Berlin Notes

  • Home
    • Contact Sean P. Durham
    • About
      • Content & Copywriting by Sean P. Durham
        • Content Marketing Creation & Blogging
      • Blogging Ideas that Fire-up Your Blogging Adventure
  • Street Photography in Berlin 2023 Gallery
  • Street Photography Articles
  • Portrait Photography by Sean P. Durham
  • Short Stories
    • Kind Hearts and a Kind of Loving — Taxi Stories
    • Midnight At the Bus Stop | Story
    • A Tapestry of Thoughts
Home » Berlin Notes » Berlin Metropolis with Wormholes and Dark Shadows

Berlin Metropolis with Wormholes and Dark Shadows

December 18, 2020 by SeanPatrick Leave a Comment

Image: Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2020

If you go to Potsdamer Platz on a warm sunny day, watch the people moving around, and the structures throw fascinating shadows across the pavements, you’ll find yourself in an endlessly changing world of architecture that not only is made of bricks and mortar, but is seen in the shadows, too.

Berlin is a city that changes, warps, with a life that seems to offer infinite possibilities. For some, it’s a place that is full of wormholes to get caught up in.

Potsdamer Platz is a fascinating observation point during the day time. Those gently shifting shadows that form a variety of shapes and forms across the pavement seem like lay-lines of the Berlin map.

The centre of the city, marked by the old traffic lights and clock that still stands at the edge of Stressemann Strasse. Then, as the sun dips down behind the buildings, and the darkness envelops the streets, the shadows disappear and become overwhelmed by the pools of flooded light from street lamps, car headlights, and simple block-boxy shadows that change the tones as each line of cars gush by on the road. Traffic lights come alive. Your eyes are led along by the map of city lights. Feet follow.

Flashing colours that dominate the eyes with garish primary colours always attract the adventurous souls looking for a break from the mundane world of work and toil.

Potsdamer Platz was once the central staging point for people taking a long journey out of the city. The long straight roads that took a traveller relatively quickly out of the city and into the countryside before they reached their destination, made it the perfect point of departure and arrival. Today, it’s seen as a fascinating place to wander around on foot, to poke about in the shops. Lots of tourist attraction shops with a Berlin Tee Shirt, a hat, beer mat, a mug for every occasion with a “I Heart Berlin”, motif to take home to your village home.

Berlin, like any other major European city began life as a centre of trade. Some historians like to take the religious angle, and believe cities are the outcome of churches being founded, then attracting more and more of the faithful to worship and live in the vicinity. I think Churches fed off the business activities that naturally drew crowds, traders, and hustlers to certain points on the map, cities developed through the necessity to stay close to the real action – making money.

Creative people, artists, writers, and musicians, are the same – they travel and discover things about their world. Money, is often their last thought.

In Berlin, you can find some of the best musicians in the world, playing in the clubs and venues.

You can look along the bookshelves of any bookshop and discover how writers have always found new ways to rediscover Berlin, to write a novel, a book of some sort, about their viewpoint on Berlin and see, that maybe, they did catch that passing trend, or the vibe of the times that Berliners were living and enjoying.

Artists are, by nature, searchers. Good artists will go out and look, seek, and find things of interest to take back to the studio and paint, write about, frame, and sing about. That’s what many Berlin artists do, and when they do this, they meet other creative people who are on a similar track. Two worlds collide and create a new set of ideas, and it’s a little like they fell into a wormhole that takes them on a journey.

As time passes, and I get older, I love to walk through the streets of Berlin and explore everything that I think I’ve seen before. There’s a lot of new buildings that replace old slots, long torn down. Commercial life has got its foot into the door, and is now crossing the threshold of personal life, so we are faced with a constant offer of something to buy. Either an object, or a ticket into a room full of exhibited objects.

Monetization of life itself is just around the corner. But the streets are still free to enter and explore as you wish. That’s always my point in these articles on Berlin Notes. You have a choice to enjoy your city as you see fit. Walk it, look at it, think about how it relates to you, and makes you feel better, or take note of what’s disturbing.

Critical thought about immediate life spaces such as what’s outside our front doors is extremely important, that we know what needs to change.

Berlin offers a lot of change. The landscape is always up for re-thinking, as the years pass. But it shouldn’t be all in the hands of the developer, with the city planners only asking how profitable a new project will turn out to be. Berlin is a people’s city, and that’s pretty unique these days, it should be protected.

Explore the city and enjoy what you find, that’s a healthy pursuit that most of us can still focus on in these times of Pandemic, and Corona-19 Virus. Crappy times, but still, we have to be creative about how we live our days.

Walking Notes in Berlin

Berlin Street Stories

Filed Under: Berlin Notes, Creativity, Street Photography, travel Tagged With: Berlin city at night and day, Enjoying your life in the city, Walking and looking in Berlin

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Berlin Street Photography

Creativity and Intentions for Artists and Makers
Berlin Street Photography, Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
Berlin Street Photography of Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
A perfect moment, a combination of events quickly go into a spiked crescendo and culminate into a small but significant moment of life on the street.
street-photography-in-berlin/street photography-in-berlin-2023-gallery/
Street Photography in Berlin. Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
Street Photography in Berlin, Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
Berlin Street Photography. Urban scenes in Mitte Berlin, Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023

Ricoh GR III Street Edition

Recent Posts

  • Photography – Filling Time and Space with Your Camera
  • Spring Time Urban Street Photography in Berlin with the Canon 5D and 24 mm-105 mm L-Lens 2023
  • Rescue Cats That Moved into My Home
  • Midnight At the Bus Stop | Story
  • Street Photography Secrets Discovered Along the Way

Pages

  • Blogging Ideas that Fire-up Your Blogging Adventure
  • Contact Sean P. Durham
  • Content & Copywriting by Sean P. Durham
  • Cookie Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Disclosure Policy of Sean P Durham | Photography & Writing
  • Kind Hearts and a Kind of Loving — Taxi Stories
  • Online Englisch Sprachunterricht in Berlin Privat
    • English Language Lessons in Berlin Private
    • Lernen der Englischen Sprache als Zweite Sprache und Motivation
  • Photography by Sean P. Durham
  • Portrait Photography by Sean P. Durham
  • Street Photography in Berlin
    • Street Photography in Berlin 2023 Gallery
  • What Berlin Notes is About?

All image on this blog and pages belong to Sean P. Durham unless otherwise stated as belonging to another writer or artist. Blog Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023. Includes images and text.

GDPR - Privay Policy
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT