Born in Texas to a German father and Iranian mother, photographer Andris Braeuer relocated to Berlin in 2023. You can find his work at The Quagmire, an upcoming group exhibition installed in a former DDR workers’ house, running from August 22 to 24 at Culterim Studios.
In September, he’ll also be exhibiting at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography, and a separate photo series shot in Vietnam will soon be featured in Frayme magazine. We spoke to him about his series In Transit, for which he photographed Berliners in the gloomy winter months of last year.
How did you start your photo series, In Transit? What sparked the idea for the series, or was it something that emerged over time?
It’s something I thought of when I was living in Ostkreuz. There were two tram lines right next to me, and I would just sit outside and watch the trams and people getting on and off. It was cool to see where people might be going.
I saw a photo series by a man named John Schabel called Passengers. He took photos of people on planes through the windows. It was all in black and white and gave the same feeling – anonymous passengers on the plane. He hasn’t done any other series, and I don’t think he’s even a professional photographer. I thought – that’s kind of cool.
Where do you see In Transit overlapping with Passengers?
I think there’s something about seeing someone you’ll probably never see again. It’s just a brief interaction. There’s anticipation, excitement and sadness. Everyone has a different reason for travelling. Everyone’s going somewhere else, but you don’t really know where. You only know what you’re doing. I wanted to mimic that feeling, to capture it in a similar style with my project.
What is one emotion that you captured in this series? Was it something that you had in mind before taking the pictures?
I tried to catch different things … Rather than a single emotion … [I] just kind of look at the people and see how they are doing. The series did have a sense of loneliness to it. I wanted to try and gather that loneliness and turn it [into something] more like empathy. How’s this person’s day going? Are they having the best day of their life? Are they super tired? Did they lose someone? Did they get in a fight? Did they lose €20? What is this state that someone’s in just by looking at them for a few seconds on a train?
Some of the photographs reminded me of the film Wings of Desire by Wim Wenders, particularly the scene where we hear people’s inner thoughts on the U-Bahn. Have you considered what the people in your photos might be thinking?
I guess what they are thinking is hard to know; of course, facial expressions and body language determine so much of that. I might not try to think what they’re thinking, just more about what they’re doing and what they’re going to do. I kind of want to, but I just really don’t go up and have a conversation. I’d rather just capture that quiet moment and leave it as it is.
Does this photo series reflect the personal relationship between you and the city?
Sometimes, I would say so, especially in winter. Berlin’s a pretty lonely city at times. Being on the train, you do have these moments of interaction with people that you will never see again. I guess for me, it was an experiment to grow my empathy and try to understand people more and just be more reflective.
Was there anything particularly challenging about the project? Did you face any pushback from people when you were taking their pictures?
I guess it’s all timing because I only have a very quick second. If someone notices me, I don’t want them to. They might give a weird face or shy away. Or sometimes, they just keep on looking at me and give me attention, like ‘Don’t look at me, I don’t exist’. It always just depends on the right moment.
- Follow Andris on IG for updates @andybraeuer.
