xhiller   |    Tuesday, der 7. December 2010

Warschauer Brücke shortly after sunrise. My hand darts out of its glove just long enough to press the shutter. I stare at the ice floes on the Spree. This photograph is trying to tell me something. A sunflower cast in iron. Wearing a lock around its neck. In the background, the river, cold and dark, flowing, yet full of frozen water.  Full frontal flash blast, full metal jacket … a flower cast in iron, a lock on its stem.

Something about this picture reminds me of Kim Longinotto’s film work.

Longinotto’s themes: women, girls, pain, breaking free, women assisting women – by any means necessary. There is something of Kim Longinotto in this picture. The realization that the flowering of many girls and women has been effectively locked down. But there is still beauty in this suspended state. The river behind this cast iron flower is flowing… albeit full of ice. Berlin in the winter. Lockdown.

Divorce Iranian Style, Sister in Law,The Day I Will Never Forget, Runaway