Monday, May 4, 2009

Berlin, Walpurgisnacht 2009


In Berlin, the night from April 30th to May 1st traditionally is reserved for physical exercise and competition between the police and demonstrators. Following last year's almost eerie silence this year yielded a bit more, well, ritualistic action (not as much as the next day in Kreuzberg tho).

This selection of photos is quite random at best and most of the shots are blurry and grainy as a result of my refusing to use a flash in such situations thus all photos were taken with a wide-angle lense, iso 3200 and 1/25.

Noteworthy occurrences:
- a stretch-limo materialized out of nowhere amidst rioters and cops
- an ordinary garbage container on fire kept the media mob excited for the better part of 20 minutes
- stuck in a police kettle an angry man complains about the lack of emergency exits, prophesying several cops would lose their jobs over this

Here are the photos: