Black in Berlin

For photographer Yero Adugna Eticha, it all began with the protests against the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and the resulting strengthening of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020. Demonstrations against racism and discrimination and expressions of solidarity took place around the world. Eticha decides to take action. On the streets of Berlin, he distributed flyers to Black people asking them to be photographed by him. Over the years, he took 500 portraits of Afro-Black Germans and the diaspora in Berlin. During these encounters, he learned everyday and moving details of their lives, which he recorded. Eticha works transdisciplinary on the levels of image and sound. BLACK IN BERLIN is a unique archive that provides an insight into the multifaceted realities of Black people’s lives in a white majority society.

At the center of the portrait work is Eticha’s examination of the culture and history of colonialism: “Who we are: An integral part of this city, people of different professions and backgrounds, different dreams, embodiments of Black identity. I dream of a Berlin in which the facet of every Black face is celebrated.” – Yero Adugna Eticha

BLACK IN BERLIN is the first solo exhibition by Ethiopian-born photographer Yero Adugna Eticha, who lives and works in Berlin. The book BLACK IN BERLIN will be published in parallel by Distanz Verlag.

The exhibition was curated by Miriam Zlobinski.

Image: NOELLA MBOMB © Yero Adugna Eticha

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