From the Heart of Berlin

Masculine bodies that are free of clichés; the search for identity; and above all the ever-changing faces of Berlin: these are the themes that animate the work of Daniel Harders. His new photo book offers a selection of pictures taken at the turn of the new millennium. The black-and-white photos portray fleeting encounters and new friendships, the hidden corners and transitory places in the city, and the shy, vulnerable, beautiful bodies of men who inhabit these places on the lookout for new perspectives and new partners. "From the heart of Berlin" expresses the vision of a young artist who strives to show more than just what's on the surface. The photos chosen for this volume combine a certain melancholy with an immense lust for life. Here, imperfection is beauty and the imperfect is desirable. Above all, Daniel Harders proves himself a sensitive chronicler of Berlin at the beginning of the 2000s. "When I came to Berlin for the first time in 1998, I immediately fell in love with the city," explains the artist in a postscript. His pictures are the record of this love affair.