Berlin, Summer 07

Drums and Jugglers

2007-08-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

I ran into Sebastian and his crew at Hackescher Markt, and they seemed to be having a lot of fun. They were three drummers and a juggler who threw and caught to the beat.

Sebastian has been a street musician for 11 years. He got his start performing in Paris, before moving to Brazil. He has since picked up a crew and come back to perform in Berlin and Paris once again.
He performs to eat and sleep. He says he just loves to make music and wouldn't have it any other way.

I didn't get a chance to stick around and talk with the crew at Hackescher Markt, but I ran into Sebastian the next day while he was setting up in Breitscheidsplatz, and we had a quick chat, though the language barrier was once again a bit of an issue.

Quartet from Belarus

2007-08-16T19:17:00.000-07:00

I came across this quartet in Dresden, and I can think of no musical performers I've seen on this trip who have sounded better. They are all studying music in Belarus, but one of them spoke great German. They have been playing in Germany on their break from school for two months. They played in Berlin, Stuttgart, Muenich and Duesseldorf before coming here to Dresden.

I stayed for three songs before I talked to them. They played classical music of Schubert, Bach and Sotori beautifully!

2007-08-16T07:38:00.000-07:00

Accordian players are everywhere here! I've seldom heard a good accordian player on the street in America, but here it seems to be a much more popular street instrument.

I met this guy in Berlin. He was playing outside of a restaraunt in Nicholaiviertel. I got some photos of him, then tried to speak with him in German. He didn't respond too well, so I tried in English. Between the two languages, I got from him that he was from Algeria and had been in Berlin for two weeks. I asked him if he had ever played in any other cities.

"Of course I do," he said, "I play the clarinet, saxaphone, trumpet and cymbals."

We had some trouble speaking to eachother, but he was very pleased to have his photo taken, and he was an interesting character.

I ran into this weathered, stone-faced man in Dresden. Behind him, you can see Dresden's famous Frauenkirche, and a crane from a construction project in the distance. He didn't much want to talk, but I didn't mind, as he has graced this photo with so much charachter. In contrast to the picture above, this man seems much more serious about his work.

The lines in the photo all seem to point to his expressive face, always drawing the viewer's eye in.

Brass Bands aus St. Petersburg

2007-08-16T06:35:00.000-07:00

Since I have been in Berlin I have been taking weekend trips to different cities. On two seperate occasions have I seen great brass bands from St. Petersburg performing for tourists.

I came upon this trio performing in front of the Zwinger in Dresden. These guys have been playing together since college, and are touring Germany on their summer vacation from work. They had only been in Germany for five days, and they had two weeks left before returning to St. Petersburg.

They were so relaxed and free-spirited, it was apparent that they were on vacation. They joked with me that they usually play and travel as a quartet, but the other player's wife wouldn't allow him to come this time.

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This five-piece St. Petersburg band is performing in front of a huge crowd on a shady avenue in Weimar. These kids in the forground were sitting with their parents, listening to the music when I walked up. But they soon got restless and used the opportunity to play a game of frisbee.

The tuba player told me that their five-piece band has been touring Germany for a month, and had been in Weimar for two days. They were selling CD's and sounded as though they could have been professionals. He informed me that they all had other jobs back home and were also only doing this musical tour of Germany for vacation. They had only been in Weimar for the weekend, but had already been to two other German cities after a week in the country.

Musicians

2007-08-15T04:23:00.001-07:00

I was sitting on the U7, headed to Kreuzberg to do some photographing. The doors opened at the Yorckstrasse station, and I heard some cluttered piano music echoing through the underground halls. I hopped off the train, followed my ear and came across this man, Joe, talking with a young German boy and his mother while he played “Your'e always on my mind,” by Sam Cooke. He was speaking English with them, and I could tell by his accent that he was American. Philadelphia-born, he said he had been in Berlin for a few years.

Some street musicians I have spoken with go around to play in different parts of the city at different times, as the life of a street performer is flexible in respect to location. But Joe sticks to his spot in the northwest hallway of the Yorckstrasse U-Bahn station. I asked him how he liked Berlin. “I don’t know much of the city,” he said. “Don’t travel around much.”
Joe wakes up mid-morning, and totes his keyboard, stand and chair to the Yorckstrasse U bahnhof, where he stays until after rush hour in the evening. He eats and sleeps off of the money he makes in this station, and is happy to do it.
“I used to work a nine-to-five job back in the states, but now this is how I make a living, I’m working right now and this is what I really love to do,” he said.
With that he began to play again, and I knew this was my cue to leave. I wished him a good day, and caught the next train.

Musicians In Weimar Park

2007-08-10T00:59:00.000-07:00

One of our weekend excursions was a trip to Weimar, in central Germany.

Weimar is a small town, but has acted as a cultural center in Germany for hundreds of years. It is home to Goethe, Schiller, a beautiful park and the Franz Liszt School of Music.

These two are undoubtedly students, performing in the park. The town is small, quiet and beautiful. The park is huge and peaceful. The green trees and rounded lines of the violins accentuate this contrast from the hard corners of big city Berlin life. I came across this impressive pair in the morning of our only day in the town... What a great way to begin your day!

I saw this man later, in the afternoon, after a relaxing chat in the park with a few other FUBiS students. Weimar was definitely the most laid-back of any of the cities I have visited on my trip. He looks pretty happy. I think i'll retire here...

Formally, this is a nice photo, because his eyes follow a line to the top of the violin - the closest point to the lens. This helps accentuate the depth in the picture.

Multi-Kulti

2007-08-07T04:55:00.000-07:00

I like the spatial relationship between these men at a Kreuzberg Döner stand. Their heads and bodies form a triangle, with the man on the left as the main focal point. He is the only one directly engaging the camera, and the others seem to be looking at/facing him. This is interesting, because when I asked them if I could take their picture, though everyone posed, he was the only one to reply.