What a surprise yesterday to see that this image got into Flickr’s Explore. I had been banned from Explore for ages. Their mathematical analysis of my images has kept me outside the select few. So I was very pleased yesterday to see my photo of Berlin hit their pages. I am not like others who look down on Explore; no, I love it. It is fun, and the reason I do photography is to have fun.
And on the subject of fun, what can be more fun than standing on a crowded train platform taking photographs. This lovely girl even threw me a smile as I did it.
You cannot visit Berlin and not be overwhelmed by the sense of history of the city, and in particular the feeling of what if? Berlin must have been one of the most frightening places on the planet in the 1930s. There are museums, artwork and installations around the city which give you a little taste of the frantic fear that people must have felt. One of these is this misshaped concrete box with a small window. When you look in the small window you see a film playing showing two men in an embrace. There is passion, desire and love between the two. Then you read about how the nazis wanted to eradicate homosexuality; how they persecuted them. How men and women had to live in constant fear and so many were eventually sent to their death in concentration camps. It is very good that German acknowledges its past. We have to learn from this. But are we? Look at what is happening in Russia today? It is so scary. So terribly awful.
There is no homosexual love, no hetrosexual love; just love!
