Fotoeins Fotografie

Above/featured: “Göttin” (goddess), by AlfAlfA, also known as Nicolás Sánchez, for One Wall 2017. Photo, 17 Jun 2025 (P15).

In continuation of high spirits and enthusiastic support of leading choices, I’m very grateful to significant time spent:

• in the Bay Area, to visit mum’s family in Sacramento and long-time friends in the South Bay;
• in Vienna for the 4th consecutive summer; and
• in Berlin for the 1st time in 4 years, as set up for a repeat in the new year.

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25 for 25

1. January 5, Lands End (San Francisco)
2. January 7, de Young (San Francisco)
3. January 16, Vicky Draves (San Francisco)
4. February 5, “Baby with a handgun” (San Francisco)
5. March 11, “Ridge lines” (San Francisco)
6. March 18, “Those towers again” (San Francisco)
7. May 10, “Horde” (Frankfurt am Main)
8. May 16, “Wall jumper” (Berlin)
9. May 18, “lalala” (Berlin)
10. May 22, Giordano Bruno (Berlin)
11. June 1, “A canopy of stars” (Berlin)
12. June 9, Lenin head (Berlin)
13. June 14, ICC (Berlin)
14. June 16, “Wrapped Reichstag 1995–2025” (Berlin)
15. June 19, “Tango” (Berlin)
16. June 29, “Photo visit” (Berlin)
17. July 1, “LIBRE” (Vienna)
18. July 2, Francesca Woodman (Vienna)
19. July 5, “This is a church” (Vienna)
20. July 10, “Apotheosis” (Vienna)
21. July 15, “Enterprise” (Vienna)
22. July 16, “Yellow fog” (Vienna)
23. July 18, “Foto Arsenal – HCB” (Vienna)
24. July 31, Courtroom 600 (Nuremberg)
25. August 4, “Ihrefeld” (Köln)

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(1) ➙ January 5, Lands End

Pacific Ocean meets San Francisco

Where the ocean meets the city, it’s easy to forget the coastline is rugged, rocky, and dangerous. The shipwrecks that lie underneath the waves in the area are testament.

• Click • that golden bridge again.

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(2) ➙ January 7, de Young Museum

San Francisco, Golden Gate Park

Winter morning light typically means low angles of incidence and deep shadows. That’s the alert to look for accents in shape and geometry.

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(3) ➙ January 16, Vicky Manalo Draves

San Francisco, Museum of Modern Art

The woman represented in the artwork is Victoria Manalo Draves, who became the first Asian-American woman to win a medal at the Olympics; she won two gold medals for both the ten-meter platform and the three-meter springboard at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London. Vicky is surrounded by three people, who seem to be distracted by what’s in their hands.

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(4) ➙ Feburary 5, Baby with a handgun

San Francisco

There’s a lot to unpack with this adorably disturbing and provocative artwork, especially in this nation. “Train `em young, learn `em young, or … kill `em young.” (Firearm mortality rate among children and teens, KFF, 2021).

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(5) ➙ March 11, Ridge lines

San Francisco, Baker Beach

Something Dan Milnor said and emphasized years ago has stuck with me: “foreground, midground, background.” The undulation of parallel horizontals in all three regimes is in play.

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(6) ➙ March 18, Those towers again

San Francisco Bay

On a sunny late-winter morning, I’m on the ferry from the City to Sausalito in Marin County. It’s an occasion to take stock of the city skyline, and to absorb a visual account of the famous towers once again.

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(7) ➙ May 10, Horde

Frankfurt am Main, Städel

Back in town on the “annual excursion” and coincidentally with the city’s “Night of Museums” (Nacht der Museen), I brave the big crowds out and about the city. But inside the Städel, I’m reacquainted with the following artwork: it’s timely, and it’s about much more within the current global socioeconomic climate.

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(8) ➙ May 16, Wall jumper

near the former Berlin Wall

The 2009 “Mauerspringer” (wall jumper) sculpture by F. Brauer, M. Brauer, and E. Anders commemorates the moment when East Berlin guard Conrad Schumann took his chance and jumped over the makeshift wire-fence from East- to West-Berlin on 15 August 1961.

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(9) ➙ May 18, lalala

Berlin, Nollendorfplatz

Not only is Nollendorfplatz a diverse, energetic, and tolerant neighbourhood, but the station here is a junction serving four of the city’s nine U-Bahn lines: U1, U2, U3, and U4.

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(10) ➙ May 22, Giordano Bruno

Berlin, Potsdamer Platz

The sculpture is not upside-down; no, what’s “upside down” is what happened to the person represented. In 1600, Italian philosopher Giordano Bruno was executed with burning at the stake for supporting the sun-centred Copernicus model of the solar system, asserting that the solar system is only one of many in the universe, and for denying the divinity of Christ.

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(11) ➙ June 1, A canopy of stars

Berlin, Museumsinsel station

What does Mozart have to do with the interior of an underground metro station?

• Click • Berlin U5-Museumsinsel: Mozart, Schinkel, & Dudler

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(12) ➙ June 9, Lenin head

Berlin, Zitadelle Spandau

Post-Wall and post-Communism brought out some rage, because the very big Lenin statue under Communism was pulled down. Somehow, the head of the statue survived, and here it is on the premises of a fortress in Spandau. I had intended the mobile to provide a comparison of physical size, but there’s added meaning if Lenin’s pensive stare in the direction of the mobile indicates more than a passing interest.

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(13) ➙ June 14, ICC Berlin

Internationales Congress Centrum

Designed by Ursulina Schüler-Witte and Ralf Schüler, the gigantic blocky trade-fair building in Berlin’s Westend opened in 1979. Berliners have helpfully and humourously applied the nicknames: “Quasseldampfer (chatterbox steamboat) and “Raumschiff” (spaceship).

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(14) ➙ June 16, Wrapped Reichstag 1995–2025

Berlin, Platz der Republik

For 2 weeks in June 2025, a nightly light-show played out on the historical Reichstag to commemorate the 30th anniversary of a giant draped artwork over the building.

• Click • My Berlin: Wrapped Reichstag at night, 30 years on

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(15) ➙ June 19, Tango

Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie

On a summer tango evening among the hoomans, I keep company with this furry Freundchen for a few minutes, and I have them under profile in bright light.

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(16) ➙ June 29, Photo visit

Berlin, Willy-Brandt-Haus

The World Press Photo 2025 exhibition was as expected illuminating and provocative, providing much food for thought to everyone about what’s happening around the world. Coming out of the large display room, I looked back and waited a few minutes.

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(17) ➙ July 1, Libre

Stephansplatz, Vienna, 1st district

What does it mean to be “free”? Does that definition apply to all living creatures?

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(18) ➙ July 2, Francesca Woodman

Albertina, Vienna, 1st district

The very first time I saw Woodman’s images in person was in 2011 in San Francisco. I knew I wasn’t going to miss out 14 years later. I often wonder about how her images may have influenced subsequent artists and photographers into the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond.

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(19) ➙ July 5, This is a church

Vienna, 23rd district

Must a church be built to a specific architectural style? What does that mean for the surrounding space as well as the church’s interior space?

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(20) ➙ July 10, Apotheosis

Vienna, 1st district

Above the 1735 marble statue Emperor Charles VI at the centre of the State Hall in the Austria National Library (Prunksaal, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) is in fact a painted work called “Apotheosis”. For the central figure in the room, it’s about looking good and feeling good.

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(21) ➙ July 15, Enterprise

Vienna, 2nd district

After my first visit in 2022, I’d always thought the interior resembled a futuristic spaceship going warp-to-warp and discovering new worlds.

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(22) ➙ July 16, Yellow fog

Vienna, 1st district

The Am Hof plaza can always use a little extra foggy mystery at night. In front of the Verbund headquarters is a nightly art-installation called “Yellow Fog” by Olafur Eliasson (2008).

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(23) ➙ July 18, Foto Arsenal – HCB

Vienna, 3rd district

Many photographs, especially in large prints, are meant to be seen in person. The new opening of a photograpy institute in Vienna brought about a retrospective exhibition of the life and work of Henri Cartier-Bresson. It’s a big deal to see many of his inspiring images in person for the first time and in sizes larger than a tiny glowing screen or a coffee-table sized book.

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(24) ➙ July 31, Courtroom 600

Nuremberg

After Nazi Germany’s surrender, this courtroom in Nuremberg became the setting for dramatic trials against a number of key leaders in the dictatorship.

• Click • Nuremberg: The Landmark Trials in Room 600, 80 years on

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(25) ➙ August 4, “Ihrefeld”

Köln Ehrenfeld

I get a little taste of home in this city on the river Rhein, especially when I catch sight of a little white goat. The city neighbourhood Ehrenfeld is written and pronounced “Ihrefeld” in the local Kölsch dialect, which will always be for me a delightful mystery. The mosaic-mural on the wall alludes to the nearby and very landlocked Helios lighthouse.

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Past reviews, 2020–2024

•   24 for 24, from 2024.
•   23 for 23, from 2023.
•   22 for 22, from 2022.
•   21 for 21, from 2021.
•   20 for 20, from 2020.

I made all 2025 images with a Fujifilm X70 fixed-lens prime (X70) and an iPhone15 (P15). This post appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com as https://wp.me/p1BIdT-vSL.