New Wall, across Landwehr Canal from Görlitzer Ufer 1982

Editor: This photograph, taken by John Gossage in 1982, is titled "New Wall, across Landwehr Canal from Görlitzer Ufer," and it’s a gelatin silver print. What strikes me most is how...stark it is, how monolithic. It feels intensely heavy. What do you see in this image? Curator: I see a potent symbol, less of physical division, and more a marker of a psychological barrier, wouldn’t you agree? Consider the wall's unrelenting diagonal – how it literally cuts the frame and, metaphorically, the city itself. Gossage is documenting not just concrete, but the concretization of ideology. Editor: That's interesting. I was so focused on the visual weight that I hadn't fully considered the psychological aspect beyond the obvious history. Curator: The foliage, though, it is important. Look how the greenery pushes against this structure! Do you sense its resilience? The natural world reclaiming space despite the imposed barrier. Editor: Yes, there’s this sense of life persisting. The plants aren’t as prominent as the wall but they are in conflict with it. Curator: Conflict is a powerful word for it. Gossage’s decision to photograph it in black and white strips the scene of any potential romanticism or easy nostalgia, focusing instead on the raw, unyielding reality of division. Editor: That makes sense. Color might soften the image, make it easier to digest. Here, there’s nowhere to hide. Curator: Indeed. And in viewing it now, decades after the Wall fell, does the image take on new meaning for you? Does it make you ponder what kind of walls, psychological and physical, we continue to build today? Editor: Definitely. I am thinking about contemporary geopolitics right now. This image feels very present even if the physical structure has come down. Curator: Precisely! Photography, especially images like this one, allow us to remember what should never happen again. It also forces one to reflect on the dangers of erecting symbols of division in our world. Editor: This makes me realize how potent a seemingly straightforward image can be! Thank you. Curator: A pleasure. Always consider that a photograph of this magnitude will always generate powerful symbolic resonance across generations.