Bernauer Strasse, Berlin. © Diane Meyer

Berlin

Diane Meyer

2019— Berlin, Germany

About this series

These images are from a completed series of 43 hand-sewn photographs that were taken along the entire 104 mile path of the former Berlin Wall.
Sections of the photographs have been obscured by cross-stitch embroidery sewn directly into the photograph. The embroidery is made to resemble pixels and borrows the visual language of digital imaging in an analog, tactile process. In many images, the embroidered sections represent the exact scale and location of the former Wall offering a pixelated view of what lies behind. In this way, the embroidery appears as a translucent trace in the landscape of something that no longer exists but is a weight on history and memory. I am interested in the porous nature of memory as well the means by which photography transforms history into nostalgic objects that obscure objective understandings of the past. By borrowing the visual language of digital imaging with an analog process, a connection is made between forgetting and digital file corruption.
The images were taken in the city center as well as the outskirts of city where I followed the former path of the wall through suburbs and forests. I was particularly interested in photographing locations where no visible traces of the actual wall remain but where one can still see subtle clues of its previous existence. Often the embroidered sections of the image run along the horizon line forming an unnatural separation that blocks the viewer. This aspect of the sewing emphasizes the unnatural boundaries created by the wall itself.

Guard Tower Deutsche Waldjugend Nature Preserve. © Diane Meyer
Mauer Park. © Diane Meyer
Brandenburg Gate, Berlin. © Diane Meyer
Former Guard Tower off Puschkinallee. © Diane Meyer
Sacrower Heilandskirche. © Diane Meyer
Forest HohenNeuendorf. © Diane Meyer
Plants Former Offices State Secret Police. © Diane Meyer
Heidelberger Strasse. © Diane Meyer
Greibnitzsee. © Diane Meyer

Photographer: Diane Meyer
Nationality: American
Based in: Los Angeles, USA
Website: www.dianemeyer.net
Instagram: @dianemeyerstudio

Diane Meyer received a BFA in Photography from New York University, Tisch School of the Arts in 1999 and an MFA in Visual Arts from The University of California, San Diego in 2002. She has been living in Los Angeles since 2005.
Her work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions at the Griffin Museum of Photography, Winchester; the 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica; AIR Gallery, NYC, The Society for Contemporary Photography, Kansas City; SPARC, South Pasadena, the Granary Contemporary Art Center, Ephraim, Utah; Klompching Gallery, NYC; a two person show at Pictura Gallery in Bloomington and numerous group shows in the United States and abroad including those at the George Eastman Museum, Rochester; Robert Mann Gallery, NYC; Regina Anzenberger Gallery, Vienna, Austria; Klompching Gallery, NYC; The Brattleboro Museum of Art, VT; Burrad Arts Foundation, Vancouver; Kunstagentur Dresden, Germany; Große Rathaus, Landshut, Germany; the Diffusion International Photography Festival, Cardiff, Wales; Arena 1 Gallery, Santa Monica; Fototropia, Guatemala City; Schneider Gallery, Chicago; Field Projects, NYC; China House, Penang, Malaysia; Galerie Huit, Arles, France; Project 42, Alkmaar, The Netherlands; Große Rathaus Galerie, Landshut; The Clarinda Carnegie Museum, IA; The Center for Photography at Woodstock, NY, Susan Laney Contemporary, Savannah; Marshall Contemporary, Venice; and others.