East Berlin 1961

Curator: Don McCullin captured this photograph, titled "East Berlin." It's part of the Tate collection. Editor: It’s so grey—and bleak. That truck dominates the composition, doesn't it? An ominous symbol of…something? Curator: McCullin is known for his war photography. So, in the context of divided Berlin, that truck could signify military presence, control, and the ever-present threat of violence. Editor: The "Apotheke" sign—pharmacy—adds a layer. A suggestion of illness, perhaps? The need for healing in a divided city? Curator: Absolutely. The photograph becomes an intersectional commentary on Cold War anxieties and the social conditions of a city fractured along ideological lines. The individual is lost in the machinery of state. Editor: I see the weight of history, the burden of division etched into the very air. It’s a powerful, unsettling image. Curator: Precisely. It prompts us to consider the human cost of political conflict. Editor: And how symbols can speak volumes about collective trauma.