ENTRY DESCRIPTION
The photo shows a homeless person in Berlin, Germany's capital, who has made his home in a bus stop. He sleeps there with his brother and a friend. On the right corner of the bus stop there is a tarpaulin that can be used to close the accommodation at night. On the left side of the picture you can see a poster of the 'Berliner help' association. This association is committed to youth and elderly care institutions, the homeless and volunteer work. The poster shows the portrait of a 63-year-old man who has been homeless for 3 years. The headline of the poster “Berlin is when you look where others look the other way” has a decisive meaning for the creation of the picture. Before that, I had noticed the poster in many public places in Berlin.

When I started to photograph the situation, the bus stop was deserted, which I was very happy about as I didn't know how the residents would react. Pedestrians and cyclists passed the bus stop without taking a closer look at the interior. After I had set up the tripod and camera, the situation changed very quickly, suddenly passers-by and cyclists stopped, pulled out their cell phones and took photos. A passer-by even asked if the situation had been staged. After about half an hour, someone patted my shoulder from behind and asked me if I would take a picture of his home. We started talking and I asked him if he'd be okay with me taking a picture of him in his home. He agreed so that this picture could arise.

AUTHOR
I was born in 1963 and grew up in Münster / Westphalia, Germany. As a landscape architect, having obtained a degree as a graduate engineer from the Berlin University of Technology as well as having completed an apprenticeship as a gardener specializing in tree nursery, I have worked with various planning offices putting the main emphasis on planning of outside facilities for private gardens, schools and hospitals as well as the development of areas which are destined for industrial and commercial use.

From an early age photography has been my passion and my constant companion and from the day I got my first SLR – I was thirteen years old – I never stopped capturing the world around me through my camera, be it nature, architecture and urban life or the barely visible things, which only become noticeable on second glance. My favourite motive though remains the human face. Photography for me is a very conscious way of seizing life in all its variety.

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