Miron Zownir’s raw and radical photography

Fascinating intellectuals and artists for generations, Berlin-based urban documentary-style photographer Miron Zownir knows the polarizing, multicultural hotspot that is the German capital better than anyone else. Up close and personal, he has honed his idiosyncratic style of photography since the late 70s, capturing over the decades the city’s downfalls, social struggles, and tumultuous time periods.

Set in an eerie, desolate urban landscape, Zownir’s starkly contrasting black-and-white pictures beautifully depict the angst, grit, pressure, and hardship that come with living in any major city. Documenting members sub- and countercultures, he possesses the unique ability to draw out the hidden, pulsating heart that is buried underneath. Approaching his subject matter in a nonjudgmental and open manner, his brazen, coarse, and revealing photographs are brimming with empathy and understanding. Slanted towards nihilism, Zownir addresses through his work important societal, political, and humanitarian issues. Never shying away from depicting atrocities, he holds up a powerful and honest mirror to society, forcing us to take a good, hard look at what we’ve created and to confront the repercussions of our inactions and our greed.

Selected works from his Berlin Noir series will be shown until May 11th along the MegaFence in front of the Kraftwerk and the Fence Entrance of the legendary Tresor Club, bridging the gap between city’s past and present. Ahead of the opening on April 30th, Mirth has submitted an exclusive questionnaire to Miron Zownir. Discover his complete answers below.

Anastasia Soller: What was the creative process behind the Berlin Noir series?

Miron Zownir: It wasn’t a drawing board project. After I moved to Berlin in 1975, I had to survive on underpaid temporary jobs and couldn’t even afford my own camera. I roamed through the streets with borrowed equipment, from the beginning focusing on people on the fringe of society. People and situations overlooked by the popular tableaus and media, rather focusing on glamour, celebrities, or other more soothing or commercially rewarding subjects. I was an autodidact without photo or art school references, gallery, magazine, or publishing house connections, and I couldn’t build my expectations on imaginary fantasy projects that seemed far beyond my reach or possibilities. It wasn’t until I returned to Berlin in 1995, after living 15 years in the States, that I recognized the potential of my photographic output in the 70s. Comparing it with the changes after the fall of the wall, I started to continue photographing in Berlin, facing its new challenges and changes. From then on, I was fully aware of a construct, accumulation, and synthesis of images that ultimately would become Berlin Noir.

AS: Living in Berlin and capturing it throughout the years, what made you stay with the city, and how did it influence your work?

MZ: What made me stay in Berlin? Other than to photograph and extend my unfinished project? The fact that I was always traveling a lot meant that for most of the time I could not have afforded to live in most other exciting cities. And last but not least, even with all its shortcomings, Berlin is never really boring and is a good place to create. If I had moved back to New York, Los Angeles, or London, or to any other city, my creative output would have been different according to the new challenges, impressions, etc. Every new location feeds you with new inspirations. Even a different climate affects your moods, your drive, or your energy. But my general focus, interests, fascinations, outlook, memories, or dreams have nothing to do with the locations I live or work. Since I am also a writer and filmmaker, I do not depend exclusively on the unpredictable opportunities as a documentary photographer.

AS: Lensing nonconformists, hustlers, heroin addicts, and the homeless, did any of them stand out in particular, and did they share their story with you?

MZ: Well, there was that punk kid that called himself Reiner Forever. Tall, emaciated, gloomy with the look of a funeral parlor employee, and obsessed by suicide. He tried to make it with his punk band as the lead guitarist and singer, even though he had no voice and couldn’t play guitar. Which was nothing unusual in punk bands. Nevertheless, he wasn’t successful, and after a devastating concert, he took a night bus to a nearby lake. It was winter, and he broke the not-too-thick ice with his guitar and drowned himself. I was at his last concert and thought he was great! An incredibly charismatic performer.

AS: Have there been challenges or hardships in connection with the images that you had to overcome?

MZ: For once it took quite some time until I could live from my artistic work. I had to do many jobs to survive. My photography was considered daring, provocative, radical, and too hot to exhibit in museums or other serious institutions. Which, of course, has very much changed in the last 10 years also due to my involvement with the Bene Taschen Gallery. I have always been recognized by some and censored by others. I don’t have any regrets and nobody to blame for. I was always aware of the risk I took.

AS: Has Berlin changed for you personally?

MZ: There is a radical global change, a tendency toward totalitarian governments, repressions, wars, intolerance, and polarization. Ruthless lunatics govern the world. Imperialistic tyrants challenge our Western values. The future looks bleaker with every senselessly slaughtered human being or animal, just a 24-hour tank ride away from Berlin. What can we do about it? We have been so cocky in our save-democracy heaven, and now everybody seems to be scared to defend it. Even so, you might live your life seemingly as usual; you can’t erase the fact that the world is changing too fast to keep up with, and the strong and powerful openly blackmail or destroy the weakest.

Berlin Noir will be on display from April 30th - May 11th at MEGAFENCE TRESOR, Köpenicker Straße 70, 10179 Berlin