It’s ten years since Tempelhofer Feld opened as a public park, and so an ideal time to reflect on how the 355 hectare site has become one of the city’s most treasured green spaces. Berlin photographer Anna Thiele has been taking her camera to the Field throughout that time, culminating in the 2020 book Tempelhof: metamorphosis. Thiele, who studied under Arno Fischer at the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie, mixes landscapes and close ups, color with black and white, and the human with the inanimate. The result is a place that appears by turns lively and vibrant yet moody and desolate: we see unicyclists and kite-flying kids in the peak of summer, but also the old terminal enveloped in winter fog and surrounded by rusting signage giving a hint of the Feld’s aviation past. This history is explored in an accompanying essay by historian Christine Bartlitz documenting Tempelhof’s transition from wartime base to commercial airport. Thiele’s visual homage to the Field reminds us just why it should be treasured. (Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Ramona Razaghmanesh)
Tempelhof: metamorphosis von Anna Thiele (2020, Distanz, 112 Seiten)
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