Issue #12: Sebastian Mayer
Sebastian Mayer is a photographer with an unruly, curious eye. He is well-known to magazine readers all over the world for his portraits of musicians. However, it was his RANDOM series what really caught my attention. A juxtaposition of two seemingly random photographs which attract and repel each other at the same time, causing a wonderfully provoking, eye-opening tension each time you look. A sublime visual blast of a two-verse haiku: anachronistically honest and disruptively up-to-date. I met Sebastian Mayer in his apartment in Wedding to talk not only about the concept behind the RANDOM series, but also about his personal detours and the experience of time in his photographic oeuvre.
Issue #11: Sarah Effenberger
The world of fashion is no longer split along the line of gender. The line, of course, still exists, but many young designers see it rather as an invitation for exploration than as an imposition. Sarah Effenberger is one of those young fashion designers who want to question or even challenge the power of the line without having to follow an overly cerebral and often quite entrenched gender discourse. As the art director of her own fashion label FOMME, she has developed an aesthetically unique approach to the unisex concept. Her creations captivate with well composed contrasts – they are subtly elegant and playfully provocative, nostalgic and highly topical, intellectually stimulating and sensually engaging, crazy and serious at the same time. I visited Sarah Effenberger in her Berlin atelier to talk about her personal take on fashion, the source of her inspiration and the end of the infinite jest.
Issue #10: Peter Schmidt & Maria Mora
Books People Places is a Berlin book deli, serving the finest food for thought in the fields of architecture, urbanism and related critical studies. The small bookstore on a history-charged side street in Schöneberg offers a wonderful selection of rare publications from independent publishers difficult to find elsewhere. But, as its name suggests, Books People Places isn’t just about books. Founders Peter Schmidt and Maria Mora want to attract a growing community of people through events that inspire and engage dialogue about our urban lives.
Every time I enter Books People Places to chat with Peter or Maria, I’m fascinated by their determination to resist the mainstream – to live their dream and to draw their own lines. We sat down over a cup of coffee to talk about their motivation and the challenges of opening a niche bookstore.
Issue #9: Ole Pihl
What if a bridge does not merely connect two riverbanks that already exist? What if the banks emerge as separate pieces of land only as the bridge crosses the stream? Ole Pihls new book “Bridge in Berlin” offers a fresh take on the fundamental Heideggerian question. The exquisitely designed graphic novel tells the story of the banks of the Spree river as they emerge through the crossing of the emblematic Friedrichsbrücke. A book changes how we approach places, it imagines an intriguing Berlin, composed equally of past and future, of fiction and reality. It is a masterpiece of visual storytelling that blends the city’s architectural history with the author’s life journey.
I met Ole Pihl in Aalborg, where he lives and works. We spoke about the fascination of getting lost, the importance of meditation and the monochromatic aesthetics.