Berlin. 2009.

The remnants of the Berlin wall in the year 2009 gave me an experience to remember.
I wanted to take a photo of this section of the wall that I had by luck stumbled across.

I approached a bystander who was having his cigarette. It was a quiet street on a Friday afternoon. I asked him to take a photo of me, apologizing bashfully for interrupting his cigarette, which he didn´t seem too keen to neglect, and joking with him that it would be "a fun artistic photo", and I assured him he´d enjoy himself.

I pulled out my camara only to find that it didn´t have any battery left.
My aquaintance then had the idea to kindly take the photos from his camara which he happened to have on him, and then email them to me.

My aquaintance´s name was Mahdi, and he is from Iran. I told him my name was Maddy. We were standing taking photos of a site that calls for world peace.

Madhi kindly sent me the photos. He surpassed the idea that the photos would be merely artistic. They were astonishing.



In his email, at the end, Madhi sends me a quote:

"Consider the momentous event in architecture when the wall parted and the column became.", Louis Kahn

I hope for the parting of all walls and all barriers to tolerance, peace, plurality and understanding.
I hope for Madhi, and for his country. This week more than ever.