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| Glinn, Burt. BERLIN/ RUSSIA/ POLAND. GERMANY, BERLIN, 1961. Waving to the east as the wall goes up. |
The Berlin Wall has always been very intriguing to me; it's hard to believe there was a physical barrier in the middle of a country, suddenly separating loved ones, sabotaging the economy, and destroying countless lives, all for a political agenda. This photograph is a heart-wrenching representation of the physical separation those people experienced. The framing of the picture is interesting with the flags of the Soviet Bloc on the right and the wall through the middle. This woman might not know those gentlemen, but she is obviously very emotional. I can imagine she has some loved ones on the other side of the wall, and judging by the size of those concrete slabs, this is probably the last time she'll be able to see over it. She's watching her life change as the wall is slowly erected, and there is nothing she can do to stop it.
There is some definite emotion captured here, and the photographer appears to have wanted to purposefully express the division the wall was bringing to Germany at the personal level. In addition to the wall itself, the contrast of the waving flag and the woman's waving handkerchief demonstrates the two elements at a conflict: the human spirit and the threat of a rising political tyranny.
ReplyDeleteGood photograph and Dana is right, the photographer's choices are important here. It is hard to tell if the men she is waving to are soldiers or civilians, whether she is waving to them or simply saying goodbye to an old life. It is the elements of the image put together that tell the story, and the story is not one of an individual but of a divided nation.
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