Photo Essay

Raving in ruins: Brox+1 visually captures Berlin, a playground of possibility, from 1991-2000

Brox+1 is a photographer and producer from Berlin. He has been taking photos since the age of fourteen, through his desire and “ inner need to visualize what I see around me”. His new photobook Berlin Possibility,  accompanied with written anecdotes from Tobias Rapp and Anton Waldt, charts the the spaces and faces of Berlin amidst the beautiful chaos of this city- following the fall of the wall in 1989.

“In the nineties it was pure joy. I was part of it. I was a raver. We explored the music and the places of Berlin, in the context of the bigger picture of history. The dark shadow of the GDR was only embraced on a visual level through the communist architecture. Some of my pictures play with these backgrounds, there was a moment I chose the patterns as Portrait backgrounds.”

“The most stunning thing about youth and especially youth in Berlin in the nineties, was the unwritten future. ‘The undecided’. A temporary moment. And Berlin in the nineties was an Eldorado of possibilities and unwritten biographies, choices to be taken or investments to be executed by the establishment and the newcomers.”

 “I was addicted to the visuals of Berlin, through capturing images of private parties, apartments and kitchens of people, and picnics in and around the city. I was aware that these spaces were becoming more normal everyday, so I captured the rotten freedom.”

“We were absorbed by the city and its new sound. But we could also feel the void. We took the signs of ex GDR (DDR), as a visual background, and completely decontextualized it.”

“Berlin became a projection, a myth for whatever reason. At the time, I never asked anybody what they expected Berlin to be. Nothing changed in my eyes. ”

“It never was about the person. I absorbed the moments. But there was no mission.”

Brox+1, aka Christopher Brox, is a photographer, producer, and wine importer. Since 1994, he has been working under the pseudonym Brox+1 which alludes to the guest list notation in Berlin nightlife. His book Berlin Possibility  is out now. An exhibition of this work is showing at Quarter 205, Friedrichstraße 67-70, 10017 Berlin from 10th November until 13th November, 2022.

Interview and text: Isabelle Moulding
All images courtesy of Brox+1

Many thanks to FF’s Event Manager Gerriet Schultz for bringing Brox’s project to us.