Berlin Pictures

Le livre

From 2012 to 2019 Mark Steinmetz took photos on the streets of Berlin. This work now comes together in the book Berlin Pictures, published by Kominek Books in 2020. The hard and soft sides of Berlin are portrayed in poetic and floating images like only Mark Steinmetz can do. What differentiates Mark Steinmetz’s photographs from that of his contemporaries is the exceptional and elusive capacity to make images that are beautiful, but also compassionate. Within his images abounds a magnitude for concern that is not easily captured and when I mention the word concern, I do not mean it in the “concerned photographer” sense, I mean it in the everyday sense. Mark’s ability to read the terrain and wander carefully, but with the glory of all heartfelt and ethical concern for his subjects makes his work humane and of a quality that predicts an overt and beautifully calculated intent within his photographs. Steinmetz has made photographs from many different parts of the world and though most of his work is exemplified by his work in America, Italy and Paris have also provided a backdrop for his photographic journeys. Mark is consistent in his ability to read the terrain with humble and adept inquiry and this consistency is manifest in his books which demarcate whichever locality he hones in on. This is of particular interest when he turns his attentions towards the urban environment, particularly a foreign environment loaded with history.