My first trip to Berlin was in 2002, the first stop on a three week inter-rail trip around central Europe with friends. I fell in love with the city instantly. Something about the place just spoke to me and it quickly became my favourite city across Europe. I made two subsequent trips (in 2004 and 2008), each time falling deeper in love with the city, its people, its culture, its history…

Fast forward to 2024 and I resolved to go again, this time for a mixture of photography, for pleasure and to rediscover my independence. In 22 years of travelling overseas, I’d never travelled on my own. This was the year I committed to doing so, to experience the city in my own time, at my own pace, in my own way. Although photography was part of the equation, the trip was more about the experience. I had a thought that maybe I would create something from my trip, but I went without putting pressure on myself to do so. So I went. I experienced. I enjoyed. I learnt. And I lived.

Conscious of the laws around photography in Germany, I knew it was going to be a challenge to capture photos of the city. I would be out of my comfort zone both in terms of solo travel and in terms of my photography. But this is what growing is all about. And so I went out each day with my camera and a couple of small books to enjoy (Baldwin, Tolstoy and Lorde), to some places I had planned on visiting, and some places I hadn’t, and then waited for the opportunities to present themselves. This zine is the result of my wanderings, my waiting and my exploring.

Whether you’ve visited Berlin or yet to experience the city, I hope this zine either evokes the spirit of Berlin for you, or inspires you to visit and explore. I know one day I’ll go back. It’s the one place I feel I truly belong…

The Paper

• A5 Zine

• 4pp Cover onto 300gsm Uncoated FSC Certified

• Matt Lamination to outer

• 36pp Text onto 115gsm Uncoated FSC Certified

• Four colour print throughout

• Trimmed, collated and wire stitched

The Process

The zine was created using Scribus, an open source desktop publishing tool. The design was entirely my creation, no third party templates or editors were used to create the print zine - hence the slightly higher cost than similar zines. What you see is my creation from front cover to back cover, with the exception of the fonts that were used. All text in the Berlin font.

The printing was done by the excellent folk at Ex Why Zed, you can find out more about their zine printing here.

The Delivery

The price for the zine includes delivery in the UK.

Zines will be sent by Royal Mail. Please allow 3-5 working days for delivery.

Queries

If you have any queries, about the zine itself or the process of creating it (or anything else…so long as it’s photography related, anything else is probably best directed to someone else who knows stuff…I know very little, honest…like being succinct. I don’t know how to do that…) please do feel free to contact me at ian@ijclark.com.