I saw this beautifully dressed gentleman waiting at the bus stop in Kreuzberg with his full suit, hat and cane. His posture and poise were regal, he looked like a character from an old film. Ibrahim stood out in that busy street, most were casual in shorts and t-shirts holding ice creams smoking cigarettes and in company, he was alone. I had seen him around the neighbourhood and wanted to approach him but I held back, something told me he probably wouldn’t want to be photographed and as such I hadn’t taken the chance. Weeks later I saw him again. I spoke German and he was kind, soft-spoken and agreed to a portrait. We moved to the side of the street facing the park and after three shots the bus halted in front of us and off he went. This was the third shot.

Kreuzberg's Gentleman Portrait of Berlin

Ibrahim in Berlin, August 2018.

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I met Conny as I left the station, I was waiting for a friend outside when she walked by, and I stopped her asking if I could photograph her. It was a hot day during Berlin summer, but as life goes on and reroutes our paths, we only met some time in November; the sweltering temperatures had iced, the winter had arrived.

Her apartment was in a charming old building in Neukölln, she told me she moved in long ago. She has been a social worker for many years and seemed satisfied and tired, that kind of work is rewarding and taxing, she said. Conny is beautiful, of course, she’d had a hard road, for reasons of privacy I won’t get into that, yet what I found so enigmatic about her was not only her beauty and gentleness, but a certain kind of wisdom and melancholy in her eyes. It was real, raw light that came through her, and with it, a darkness.