Berlin: Imagining the Tri Chord

These evocative images document the ever-changing face of Berlin and its people. The title of the book is Nicholas Sinclairs adaptation of the musical term tritone: the musical intervention that creates a sense of tension and suspense, a mood that is evident in the colour combinations of these haunting photographs. Split into six different themes the Spirit, Melancholia, Conflict, Desire, Anarchy, and Political Control these photographs form a fascinating record of East Berlins vibrant, passionate and scarred landscape. Sinclairs painterly eye searches out marks and images left by the citys anonymous inhabitants. Working like an archaeologist recovering a collective artwork, he uncovers the rich layering of history that is apparent in cracked and peeling paint on the walls and surfaces of the city. When these patterns are echoed in the blemishes on the skin of a young Asian girl from Berlin, the connection sets up an indelible resonance between the citys fabric, its inhabitants and its history. It is this connection between individual and collective life that takes visible shape in these arresting and poetic images.