Gabriele Basilico: Berlin Edited by Filippo Maggia & Gabriele Basilico
Texts by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Stefano Boeri, Renate Siebenhaar and Gabriele Basilico
oblong, 8vo. pp. 184. 138 b/w illustrations. hardcover. London: Thames & Hudson, [2002].
New.
ISBN-10: 0500542589 / ISBN-13: 9780500542583
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Gabriele Basilico is one of the best-known 'documentary' photographers in Europe; his field of research is the city and the industralized landscape photographed in black and white and with extreme rigour. An architect by training, he is committed to imposing discipline on spaces and volumes. He tends to cut and define shadows at the same angle, imparting an order and creating a geometry that is based on tormented architecture. This archive of Basilico's photographs of Berlin was accumulated over three separate visits in 2000. Basilico had already photographed Berlin in 1990, when he had documented the gradual demolition of the Wall; for this collection, Basilico's main point of focus is the Eastern area of Berlin, formerly the Communist bloc. This is a unique pictorial record revealing the hidden but coherent rhythm of a modern urban environment and a city in the throes of monumental change.