1992-1994 Der Tag – documentary photography: photo series and photo story, photos by Andreas Muhs

Der Tag, Berlin-Mitte, 1992-1994, 72 photos, analogue

I had moved to Berlin alone in 1991. My only contacts arose from my work in the laboratory and were limited to working hours. I spent my free time with my camera, roaming the city. This is a rather solitary activity, but it led to images that might not have been created otherwise. The series "Der Tag" began by chance at Alexanderplatz, when at night I discovered only the first six illuminated letters of the "Tagesspiegel" advertisement at the station. This was followed by shots in a still very dark city, which I sometimes held handheld for several seconds. I didn't care about the technical quality of the shots, because I wanted to capture the mood. The most striking example is the cover image of "Berlin – The Early Nineties", which also includes image 10907. The woman stood in the dark under the broken streetlamp at the Brandenburg Gate. I only had to estimate when the photographer would flash her, in order to trigger the shutter a little earlier. In this shot, the woman looks into my camera.

Leica M6