London-Paris-Berlin – A Visual Interpretation of the Tourist Attractions of Three Cities, Lars Rebers

In 1991, I completed my photo series Berolinum. The series is a mix of fiction and reality; me searching for my father in Berlin. The starting point was my father’s similar journey right after World War II, when he waited for soldiers to return in Berlin. I, however, was searching for my father on a symbolic level. Over a couple of weeks, I walked around the city “searching,” while simultaneously photographing. The material created the Berlin series, which tells the story of the city just before the reunification of Germany and of me, a child of divorce, whose family was never united.

In 2001, I continued the city series. The Prague series has been significant to me in many ways. The culture shock was immense when I moved to Finland as a 10-year-old without a father. It marked the beginning of a long and lonely period in my life. Through the Prague series, I processed two themes: loneliness and otherness. Previously, I had only had an overly romanticized image of Prague, much like when I was young and dreamt of an eternally happy and intact family. What does a “regular” and lonely Prague look like? I went there in 1998 and 2000. While “therapizing” myself, a photo series emerged that tells the stories of people and places living in the shadows.

Warsaw was the third city in my city series. Historically, it is a meeting point of East and West, a place of two cultures. But it is also a transit point for many armies. At times, the whole country has even ceased to exist. I am half German and half Finnish. Sometimes I felt trapped when my parents, during their divorce, fought over my sister and me. At times, I even felt as if I had ceased to exist. I traveled to Warsaw, connected myself to the city, and through it, I healed myself and was able to show others my interpretation of the city.

London-Paris-Berlin

My newest city series began in Paris. In the city, I observed the movements of tourists and travelers. Where did they go, what did they look at? The tourist attractions were almost self-evident. Tourist attractions are, in themselves, dull and conventional, yet they draw people year after year. The attractions are familiar to people, even if they haven’t been to the location. After Paris, I wanted to expand my horizons. I am fascinated by large cities. I wanted to continue photographing big cities. London was a city I didn’t know, but it was visually fascinating. In London, I continued the tourist photo theme I had started in Paris, capturing the most common and well-known tourist sites in my own way. As a tourist, we want to see and experience new things, but we are still entangled by tourist attractions that we “share” with others. Alongside Paris and London, I also photographed in Berlin. In 1990, I was photographing there for the first time. It’s been 18 years since my first trip to the city. I returned there three years ago and created a new photo series of the city that had such a big impact on my entire photographic style. I was photographing a new version of Berlin, a city that is the starting point for my entire visual world.

Tourist attractions connect these three cities. The function of tourist attractions is always the same, regardless of the city— the experiencer creates their own image and memory of the place.

This text was created with AI assistance.