From May 5 to 29, the cinematographer and photographer Jamie Maxtone-Graham presents his observations of everyday life in Berlin at the Goethe-Institut Hanoi. When one enters into a place or a culture not one’s own, the camera can become an important device to investigate or decipher clues to that society. Jamie Maxtone-Graham, originally from the US, had the chance to spend a year living in Berlin. Between the apartment where he stayed and the studio where he worked, he moved through the streets, the buildings, the buses and trains, through the people who lived there who were also moving through these same streets. Every day there were small lessons – some practical, others linguistic, some relating to perception and others to behavior.
“In photographing these daily journeys and identifying what I saw both in image and with a language not my own, I was often given the gift of being corrected. But sometimes I got it right.” (Jamie Maxtone-Graham)
“German Lessons” is a visual and linguistic journey through that experience of trying to understand with the fore knowledge of impending failure.
Photography Exhibition “German Lessons” will open on 05 May and be on display until 29 May 2017, 9 am – 7 pm at Goethe Institut.