Contact Sheet Print: The Fall of the Berlin Wall. Germany, 1989. Raymond Depardon

Description

Having photographed the Berlin Wall being constructed as a 19-year-old, Raymond Depardon found himself back in the city – on assignment for the newspaper Libération – covering the Wall’s fall, in late 1989. He made this series of images near the Brandenburg Gate, and while it featured on the front pages of the Financial Times, and Le Monde at the time it has, as he explains below, gained greater value over time.

Depardon wrote of the series “as you can see on the contact sheet, in the middle of the roll I started to focus on the young man on the wall. He was a punk from the West, and he suddenly screamed very loudly. That’s how he got my attention. He screamed and I grabbed my Leica and I shot. The power of the image is made by this rebel yell. It’s a cry of freedom, anger and pleasure. The scream symbolized the fall of the wall at the time. The picture appeared on the front page of the Financial Times and Le Monde, but it took a while before it became known as a good picture. I think it’s getting even more symbolic with time.”

This contact sheet contains the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany, 1989

Raymond Depardon joined Magnum Photos in 1978.