Miguel Santos

Words & photographs by Miguel Santos

Photography · Berlin, Germany

Sometimes, looking at a city means paying attention to what has been left on its surfaces.

In these six photographs from Berlin, I found subjects in stickers, paint, rough concrete, reflections and objects placed along the pavement. Some carry explicit messages. Others hold the eye through colour or repetition. Together, they form a personal sequence of things encountered while looking closely at the street.

What interests me is how these details share public space. A bright car sits among pedestrians and signs; a small stencil interrupts the texture of the ground; a row of brooms becomes a pattern in a shop window. The photograph gives each of them a moment of attention.

A yellow booth, many voices

The yellow booth stands above a dark base, with autumn leaves around it and pale sky behind. Its strong outline makes it readable from a distance. Closer in, stickers and graffiti break the surface into many smaller fragments.

I like the contrast between the simple shape of the object and the accumulation of marks on it. The frame moves between those two scales: one bright form, then a collection of individual traces.

Colour parked in the street

The painted car fills the foreground with red, green, orange and small graphic details. Behind it, people continue along the pavement among signs and buildings. That wider setting matters: the car becomes part of the street’s visual activity.

The side-on view gives the paintwork a broad surface to occupy. Windows, wheels and panels provide a familiar structure, while the decoration changes how I read it.

Looking through the wall

In the photograph of the Berlin Wall, a break in the concrete becomes a frame within the frame. Exposed metal bars cross the opening, and a building remains visible beyond. Rough edges sit close to the camera, giving the surface a physical weight.

I chose a viewpoint that holds both the material and the view through it. The image invites a slower look at what remains, what is missing and how the space beyond is seen.

Messages underfoot and at eye level

The words “Nazis raus” appear in white on dark asphalt. The tight composition leaves little else to compete with the stencil and the coarse texture around it. It is a direct anti-Nazi message, encountered as part of the street rather than on a formal sign.

The next image brings a different visual language: layered stickers, lettering and a yellow political caricature. Satire and protest occupy the same surface as tags and other fragments. Here, my subject is that public display of expression, including its confrontational tone. The photograph records the artwork as encountered.

Everyday objects, unexpected rhythm

The final photograph turns to a line of brooms leaning against glass. Their handles make diagonals across the frame, repeated in the reflections. In black and white, the differences between bristles, paving stones and window surfaces become more noticeable.

It is a quieter image to end with. The objects are ordinary, but their arrangement makes the eye move between foreground, reflection and the building across the street.

Following the details

This sequence is one way of looking at Berlin through its visible traces. I am interested in the conversation between an object and its surroundings: how colour attracts attention, how a message occupies space and how a reflection adds another layer. Walking with a camera gives me a reason to notice those relationships before moving on.

All photographs © Miguel Santos. Select an image to view it in full size.