AUTHOR'S PHOTO STORIES
// Denisa Kesten
Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia, currently living in Berlin, Germany
Member of Photo action from November 2019
Šempeter pri Gorici, Slovenia, currently living in Berlin, Germany
Member of Photo action from November 2019
MAGICAL SHINE OF LIGHTS // December 2020
This photography was made at the East Side Gallery shopping mall on December 2020, a couple of days before the lockdown in Berlin. I simply couldn't pass this shop without taking a picture. It's hard to find so much shiny kitsch even in the German capital. Rather than magical shine of light it's more a fist full of light in your eyes.
SLO // ČAROBNI BLESK LUČI
Slika je bila narejena v nakupovalnem centru East side gallery decembra 2020, par dni pred ponovnim lockdownom v Berlinu. Preprosto nisem mogla mimo te trgovine, ne da bi je fotografirala. Toliko bleščečega kiča na enem mestu je težko najti tudi v sami nemški prestolnici. Bolj kot čarobni sij luči bi rekla, da je prej pest luči v očeh. |
EMPTINESS // November 2020
The photography was taken on the first Friday night after Berlin entered in lockdown this month. Never before I have seen something like that: an empty tram in one of the most beloved party destinations in the city.
SLO // EMPTINESS
Slika je bila narejena prvegi petka zvečer, po razglasitvi lockdowna v Berlinu ta mesec. Nikoli prej nisem doživela kaj takega: prazen tramvaj v eni najbolj žurerskih četrti v mestu. |
TOUCH // October 2020
We can touch people in hundred different ways. One of them is with a shoe.
SLO // NIKOLI
Ljudi se lahko dotaknemo na stotine različnih načinov, med drugim tudi s čevljem. |
RESEARCH // September 2020
Researching intimacy in the German capital.
The picture is part of my personal "project" researching intimacy in Berlin. I put project in quotation marks because it's more an idea or wish to capture and show my Berlin friends and acquaintances in a way and moments nobody has done before. SLO // RAZISKOVANJE
Raziskovanje intimnosti v nemški prestolnici. Slika je del mojega osebnega "projekta" raziskovanja intimnosti v Berlinu. Projekt v narekovajih, ker je prej ideja oz. želja ujeti in prikazati moje berlinske prijatelje in znance na način in v trenutkih, kot jih se nihče prej ni. |
NEVER // August 2020
What you see is just part of my first naked portrait. I'm very proud of the whole photography because it looks very good and I like to show it to my friends. Unfortunately I don't dare to publish it under my real name due to the pretty narrow Slovenian mentality. A true shame.
That is why you most probably will never see the whole picture ;) SLO // NIKOLI To, kar vidite, je samo del mojega prvega akta. Na celotno sliko sem zelo ponosna, ker je izredno dobro izpadla, in jo rada pokažem prijateljem. Žal si je ne upam objaviti pod lastnim imenom in priimkom zaradi precej omejene slovenske mentalitete. Res škoda. Zato po vsej verjetnosti ne boste nikoli videli celotne slike ;) |
NIGHT SCENE // July 2020
A random night scene in Berlin.
Feeling your own body through pain; realizing that you can endure more than you thought you could ever do. Focusing on here and now; feeling empowered and deeply connected with those who share this experience. SLO // NOČNA SCENA Naključna nočna scena v Berlinu. Občutje lastnega telesa skozi bolečine; spoznanje, da zmoreš / preneseš več kot si si mislil, da lahko. Osredotočenje na tu in zdaj; občutek moči in gIoboke povezanosti z drugim, ki s tabo deli to izkušnjo. |
CIRCLE // June 2020
Marika: "I had these circles tattooed as a reminder of things I would like to improve on myself. When I achieve this goal, they will turn black. This second circle is already almost all black because I almost reached my goal. This third one is a little black-lined because I still have a lot of work ahead of me, but I'm already working on it. I can only tell you one wish because they are too personal and I don't want to reveal them to anyone. One of my wishes is to be able to express my thoughts in such a clear way that others would understand them correctly. Sometimes I am too impulsive and fail to articulate and communicate my thoughts as I would like to."
SLO // KROG
Marika: "Dala sem si tetovirati te kroge kot opomnik, na stvari, ki bi jih rada na sebi izboljšala. Ko bom dosegla ta cilj, bodo postali črni. Ta drugi krog je že skoraj ves črn, ker sem skoraj dosegla svoj cilj. Ta tretji je s črno malo obrobljen, ker imam še veliko dela pred sabo, ampak že delam na tem. Lahko ti zaupam samo eno željo, ker so ostale preveč osebne in jih nočem nobenemu zaupati. Ena izmed mojih želja je ta, da bi lahko izrazila svoje misli na tako jasen način, da bi jih drugi pravilno razumeli. Včasih sem preveč impulzivna in svojih misli ne uspem tako artikulirati in sporočiti, kot bi si želela." |
REFLECTION // May 2020
The theme Reflection seemed at first so simple that I didn't immediately pay enough attention to it, since reflections are everywhere, you don't have to think too much about it. Easy topic. Oh, how wrong I was. It wasn't until the end of the month that I realized that I couldn't find a reflection that would convince me, even though I had taken many pictures with reflections in the past. But May was really a challenge.
I'm not too happy with the chosen photo, but it has some reflections in the background. It was taken from the window of a city train in Berlin, which shows some vague reflections of the train. I also like to look at the picture as a reflection of the current Berlin everyday life. SLO // ODSEV Tema Odsev se mi je sprva zdela tako preprosta, da ji nisem takoj posvetila zadostne pozornosti, češ saj odsevov je vse povsod, ni si treba preveč beliti glave. Lahka tema. Oh, kako sem se motila. Šele proti koncu meseca sem se zavedala, da nikakor ne najdem odseva, ki bi me prepričal, pa čeprav sem v preteklosti že veliko slik z odsevi naredila. A maj je bil zares izziv. Z izbrano fotografijo nisem preveč zadovoljna, ampak ima nekaj odsevov v ozadju. Nastala je z okna mestnega vlaka v Berlinu, zato so vidni rahli odsevi vlaka. Na sliko rada gledam tudi kot odsev trenutnega berlinskega vsakdana. |
BOOK TITLE // April 2020
1984 / George Orwell
A scene from Orwell's 1984 book? No, just Mäusebunker, one of the biggest construction scandals in Berlin. The cost to build this animal testing building of FU Berlin increased from 4 to 126,5 million DM in ten years. Now it's planned to be demolished because of the high concentration of asbestos. SLO // NASLOV KNJIGE // 1984 / George Orwell Scena iz Orwellove knjige 1984? Ne, Mäusebunker, eden največjih gradbenih škandalov v Berlinu. Stroški za gradnjo te stavbe namenjene izvajanju poskusov na živali univerze v Berlinu so v desetih letih narasli s predvidenih 4 na 126,5 milijonov takratnih DM. Stavbo naj bi zaradi azbesta porušili. |
MOMENT // March 2020
Berlin, Alexander Platz, Monday March 16, 9:30 a.m. The picture was taken on the day we were informed that our language school was temporarily closing due to corona virus. In the classroom as well as in the city, it was already possible to feel the changed atmosphere. The usual Berlin's relaxed mood and carelessness was replaced by fear, nervousness and tension. On the way to the Decathlon I felt the need to capture that moment of transition between the life I knew until then and the new one, filled with restrictions.
SLO // TRENUTEK Berlin, Alexander Platz, ponedeljek 16. 3., ura 09:30. Slika je bila narejena na dan, ko smo bili obveščeni, da tudi naša jezikovna šola zaradi korone začasno zapira svoja vrata. Tako v razredu kot tudi v mestu je bilo že mogoče začutiti spremenjeno vzdušje. Običajno berlinsko sproščenost in brezskrbnost so zamenjali strah, živčnost in napetost. Na poti do Decathlona sem začutila potrebo, da ujamem ta trenutek prehoda med življenjem, ki sem ga do takrat poznala in novim življenjem, ki ga bodo zaznamovale omejitve in prepovedi. |
Location: Alexander Platz, Berlin, Germany
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LUCKY MISTAKE // February 2020
3teeth concert in Berlin. Finally a different light! Previously, almost the entire concert took place in a red light, which means bad photos. The composition is perfect, the singer pauses for a moment. That's the right moment, I think. I take my breath, I want to make the photo, but a guitar player goes just in front of me!!! Agh! The resulting picture is horrible, but I like it anyway; maybe because it represents what it could be, but it is not.
SLO // SREČNA NAPAKA Koncert 3teeth v Berlinu. Končno drugačna luč! Pred tem se je skoraj celotni koncert odvijal v rdeči luči, kar pomeni zanič slike. Kompozicija perfektna, pevec se za trenutek ustavi. To je pravi moment, si mislim. Zajamem sapo, hočem fotografirati, a se mi pred faco nastavi kitarist!!! Aaah! Nastala slika je grozna, a mi je vseeno všeč; mogoče, ker predstavlja to, kar bi lahko bila, pa ni. |
SOMEWHERE ELSE // January 2020
An expat. I've been living in Berlin for over 5 years. Although I integrated very well here and feel at home, the view of the TV tower always makes me angry because it reminds me that this is not really my real home, that my home is somewhere far away.
SLO // NEKJE DRUGJE Izseljenka. Ze več kot 5 let živim v Berlinu. Čeprav sem se tu zelo dobro integrirala in se počutim kot doma, me pogled na TV stolp vedno nekako razžalosti, ker me spomni na to, da to ni zares moj pravi dom, da je moj dom nekje drugje, daleč stran. |
Location: Alexander Platz, Berlin, Germany
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LOVE // December 2019
The photo shows a slip I wrote for a Christmas present (a frame with our pictures) to a Berlin friend who spent Christmas alone at home. Fabio moved to Berlin a few years ago. The week before the holidays, he confided to me that he had lost his mother very early and that his father had sent him to his grandmother or aunt's for Christmas. As Fabio got bored with them, he began spending Christmas alone at home in the company of Japanese horrors movies and pizza. Although he claimed it was a tradition for him, I din't feel that he really doesn't care
When he received the gift and read the message, he was visibly moved. ;) SLO // LJUBEZEN Fotografija prikazuje listek, ki sem ga napisala za božično darilo (okvir z našimi slikami) prijatelju iz Berlina, ki je božic preživel sam doma. Fabio se je preselil pred nekaj leti v Berlin. Teden pred prazniki mi je zaupal, da je zelo zgodaj zgubil mamo in da ga je oče pošiljal k babici ali teti za božič. Ker se je Fabio z njimi dolgčasil, je začel preživljati božič sam doma v družbi japonskih grozljivk in pice. Čeprav je zatrjeval, da je to za njega tradicija, se mi ni zdelo, da mu je zares vseeno. Ko je dobil darilo in prebral sporočilo, je bil vidno ganjen. ;) |
WORD AND PICTURE // November 2019
The photo was taken at the Naturkundemuseum underground station in Berlin. The station is named after a nearby natural history museum, which is also indicated by posters and decorations there. In front of a poster with the phrase "It's ok, it's dead" from Jurassic Park movie sat a drunken homeless man who couldn't sit up. The combination of the image and the words seemed interesting and at the same time grotesque, since the station is located in an elite Berlin quarter where the homeless are strictly ignored, so there are not many of them. It could be said that homeless people in this central part of the city are not only socially excluded, but already dead, because no one cares about them.
SLO // BESEDA IN SLIKA Fotografija je nastala na podzemni postaji Naturkundemuseum v Berlinu. Postaja je poimenovana po naravnoznanstvenem muzeju, ki se nahaja v bližini, na kar opozarjajo tudi plakati in dekoracije. Pred plakatom s frazo "It's ok, it's dead" (V redu je, mrtev je.) iz Jurskega parka je sedel pijani brezdomec, ki ni mogel sedeti pokonci. Kombinacija podobe in besede se mi je zdela zanimiva in obenem tudi groteskna, saj se postaja nahaja v imenitni berlinski četrti in brezdomci so tu striktno ignorirani, zato jih tudi ni veliko. Lahko bi rekli, da so brezdomci v tem centralnem delu mesta ne samo socialno izključeni ampak že mrtvi, saj se nihče za njih ne zmeni. |