By Caelan Monkman
Our first full day in Berlin was one filled with history, photography, and sightseeing (both intentional and not.) The day began with a walking tour of Berlin’s historic landmarks. It was quite surreal to be in the presence of some of the monuments which I had until then only experienced through history books. To stand where the Berlin wall once stood, or where the 1933 book burnings had taken place, was both exciting yet at the same time daunting.
The afternoon consisted of a mad dash across the city to get to the Berlin University of Applied Science, which we learned the hard way has multiple campuses across Berlin. Thirty minutes, one bus, and two panicked phone calls with Asbjørn later, and we arrived at the correct school for a very interesting workshop with German photographer Nica Junker. She spoke about the dérive, an artistic mentality with the focus of wandering urban environments without specific goals or destinations in mind. By adopting this mentality, we learned, you can see things around you in ways that you previously wouldn’t. Although often used for artistic photography, it was fascinating to translate this idea into the realm of journalism, using it as a way to explore possible story ideas that otherwise may go unnoticed in the day-to-day life of a large city such as Berlin. This concept of the dérive is definitely one which I will take forward with me in my journalistic career.
