The Wall:
I managed to capture this candid image of this young couple who happened to step into frame while I was composing a shot of Berlin artists Kani Alavi's mural, entitled, "It Happened in November." The image captivated me when I reviewed it later in Lightroom; the young woman, clearly focused on her phone, was oblivious to everything happening around her—while something captured the young man's attention.
It Happened in November, by Berlin artists Kani Alavi is one of the many street murals, which makes up the East Side Gallery. Located on Mühlenstraße 3-100, 10243 Berlin, Germany; the East Side Gallery, once the Berlin Wall, now it's the longest open-air gallery in the world. The gallery consists of 105 murals painted directly on a 4,461-foot long remnant of the Berlin Wall, by artists from all over the globe. The section of the wall is found near the center of Berlin, on Mühlenstraße in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The gallery has official status as a Denkmal (a heritage-protected landmark).
Kani Alavi painted this haunting mural in 1990. The abstract painting depicts a snapshot of Checkpoint Charlie in the American-controlled sector of West Berlin on the day that the Wall came down. Faces upon faces can be seen with a myriad of expressions, bringing to life the overwhelming range of emotions felt by all Berliners on the day their city was once again united. Kani Alavi watched the fall of the Berlin Wall from his former apartment near Checkpoint Charlie, the border between the Russian and American sectors during the Cold War. Looking from his window, he recalled that during that night, he saw thousands of people from the East, climbing the wall and crossing into West Berlin.
