Trains and Typefaces: Berlin By Bahn (on Film)
Part 2: A photographic documentary
29th December 2024. New camera day. Olympus Superzoom 700XB (broken flash).
Let’s rewind. 28th December 2024. Forest Long Run.
A little bit further. December 2024. The Return of Austin Augie.
What the hell are you on about Paddy?
The series of events that led me to led me to writing this piece. One that I was going to call the first visual article, but that would be doing 300 Days of Poetry a disservice.
Arriving in Berlin I got back into YouTube in a big way. Particularly, my man Martijn Doolard. A Dutch photographer, cyclist, visual artist, and renovator. Since the inception of his channel, I have religiously watched his videos. In which, he renovates a pair of cabins in the Italian Alps. Each episode consists of incredibly cinematic shots of him doing the work. A typical episode may include the following storyline: cleaning the chicken coup, installing glass windows into the greenhouse, mountain hiking, cutting stakes, open-fire bread baking, future plans for the site. The epitome of what I like to call “Slow YouTube”.
I don’t watch any TV or Movies - especially, now that I’m in Germany and afraid of their piracy laws. Yes. I could get a VPN… but I wouldn’t use it. That said, I watch a lot of YouTube. Typically, this style of slow video, or documentaries about endurance sporting events.
However, the inspiration for this piece came from the return of Austin Augie to YouTube (or rather, back into my life). An American photographer, cyclist (BMX), visual artist, and model. I (have) watched his videos religiously since the inception of his channel 7 years ago. He entered during the pinnacle of Casey Neistat’s daily vlog and followed the same cadence. Since then, his style has changed dramatically; where he looks to explore storytelling through photography.
The last two years have seen him hide all of his previous ‘work’ so that his channel reflects his focus on photography. Almost all of the films on there are in Black & White and are interspersed with still images that he has taken on both analogue and digital cameras. The effects are striking. So much so, that I looked to recreate the style. Recording my own vlog to accompany the story that follows. Primarily for my own documentation, however, if you’d like to see it then please feel free to shoot me a message.
Bringing this back to the real world. My world. I’ve spent the last two years growing gradually further away from my DSLR. I bought a Canon 700D before my first solo travel trip in 2016. However, I find it cumbersome to carry around now. I’d much rather have a smaller, more versatile Canon G7 or something from the FujiFilm X(t) range. It reached the point that I wouldn’t even take my camera with me on my travels, in favour of my iPhone.
The issue with this is that, as of right now, I have 106,394 photos and 9,771 videos. I’m someone who never deletes photos at the end of a trip and even has difficulty deleting things that clearly have no sentimental value. I want to change my habits. Change my camera. So that I am more intentional with the shots that I’m taking.
I also want to make photography something fun. In the final quarter of 2024, I found myself unemployed in Berlin, with far too much spare time on my hands. With the nights drawing in (far too) early, I knew that I had to leave the house at least twice per day to ensure my mental health didn’t spiral. I would typically run every morning and head out for a stroll at sunset. To keep things interesting, I would often go on a colour walk (deciding on a specific colour before setting off and photographing interesting things of only this colour) or was occasionally set the task of documenting the coolest typeface (font) I came across.
Which is where we catch up. I’d spent a lot of the weeks either side of Christmas on Kleinanzeigen looking at point-and-shoot film cameras - cheaper, all-in-one cameras where the lens is fixed and built into the body of the camera. On the 28th of December, the run I went on with my friend was unceremoniously cut short at Wannsee S-Bahn station due to an injury (thankfully, not mine). We continued to our final destination of Potsdam by train, but not before a decision was made in my mind.
I was going to go on a photography mission of Berlin’s train stations. Taking photos of all of the cool typefaces that I came across.
Having spent a lot of time exploring the city during my funemployment, I had 12 stations ready to go. However, I consulted these two other articles 25 lovely train stations in Berlin and Berlin’s prettiest U-Bahn stations, to help with some ideas. Alongside some happy accidents I came across on the journey. Which is exactly what I wanted to get out of this experience. Another local adventure and a greater appreciation of the city I now call home.
Before we continue, here are the high-level figures from my day:
27 Trains
3 Buses
3 Runs - 2.1km
25 Stations Photographed
2 Stations I Failed to Photograph
1 Fake Station Photographed
7 hours
1 Unusable Shot
29 December 2024. I was surprised when I got up this morning. It was sunny, not something that you can take for granted here in Berlin. I laughed when someone told me that locals stop in the street to soak up any stray rays. Now, I do the same. There was a period in November when I did not see a single ray of sunshine for two weeks.
Everybody told me to buckle up, moving to Berlin in the winter. I’ll be alright, I have the right clothes. Little did I know, they were talking about the incessant grey… not the cold. So, despite being sunny in the morning - I’m glad I rugged up because it ended up being -2 degrees celsius whilst I was out shooting.
I started my journey with a short walk down to Sonnenallee S-Bahn station. The closest station to my house. Whilst it doesn’t have a particularly beautiful typeface or facade. It’s my local station, so you know I had to photograph it.
A few days prior, I had seen something else which made me laugh. Visible from the location of the photo above was Rixdorf S-Bahn. Which doesn’t exist. Rixdorf is the name of the medieval settlement across the road from me (read as: my favourite place in Berlin). The below photo is a parody of the DB (Deutsche Bahn) and it made me laugh, so I’ve included it.
The next station was one that I failed to photograph. Ostkreuz. An iconic station at the eastern point of the Ringbahn (Berlin’s circular railway line), and my most frequent transfer station. My camera could not pick up the entirety of the text so I opted to keep it moving.
On to S-Gesundbrunnen - from now on, when I use S- or U- as a prefix, I will be referring to the S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations respectively.
I’m aware of the irony of this mission, whereby, I was on the hunt for cool typography and yet another image had nothing to do with the typeface. This is one from the links I shared above which referred to this staircase as resembling a snake’s mouth. I have to agree… what do you reckon? I think I could also see it in The Matrix or something similar.
It’s not (really) my fault that I was still yet to photograph some typography. You saw the stats, I had to make over 30 connections to make this work. Thus, I had spent a fair bit of time the night before grouping the stations and trying to figure out the optimal route.
Which as we know changed on the fly, as I stopped and changed to photograph additional platforms that I discovered en route. Pankstrasse was the first of those but also happened to be the only photo on the roll that didn’t print. So, I will include the only digital photo in the article here.
This article would quickly get out of hand if I were to include every single image that I took on the day and the accompanying story. Also, not all of the images came out perfectly. So I’m going to be a little bit more decisive from here on out.
Osloer Straße, despite having the Norwegian flag on the platform and being a station I visited twice. Running from and then back to it. Didn’t come out as I had hoped.
The next station that I want to introduce you to is U-Franz-Neumann-Platz. Franz Neumann is considered one of the founders of political science in the Federal Republic of Germany. But that’s not what led me to photograph this station. It has been designed to reflect the wildlife around the neighbouring Schäfersee (lake).
Now, I don’t think I would have caught a glimpse of the Central American-looking bird I found in the station stairwell. But I sure enjoyed seeking it out down here and documenting it with my film camera. Did somebody say Pokémon?
A few stations later, I found myself at Wedding station. Which couldn’t be further from the image that just conjured up in your mind. For starters, it is pronounced with a v (vedding). It’s known for being one of the rougher parts of Berlin. And, its station platform is enclosed in the most vibrant orange tiles you’ve seen in your life. (Un)fortunately, without a flash, my camera didn’t quite shine these in their best light.
Again, skipping through a few stations, I found myself at Berlin Hauptbahnhof (central station). It was Sunday lunchtime, and I got lucky. Germany closes down on a Sunday. The major train stations are the only places in the city where the supermarket chains remain open. Once I’d scoffed some lunch, I headed outside and tried to figure out how on earth to photograph such a glass behemoth.
Thankfully, it all turned out for the best. If you return to the first image of this article you will see Hauptbahnhof in all its glory. That glory being, praised as one of my favourite pictures of the day.
Heading out west, I almost made my way to the wrong Olympiastadion station. I needed the U-Bahn, not the S-Bahn to photograph the right entrance way. So after a couple more unplanned stops at Zoologischer Garten and Deutsche Oper, I finally made it.
Inside the foyer, there was the front of an old and new stock of train carriages. With a sign for the U-Bahn Museum Berlin. But I saw nothing of the sort.
Two of my favourite stations of the day were those that I had no intention of stopping at. Deutsche Oper is one of those. A station with multiple sets of platforms that you could see out and over. Green steel girders to hold the concrete above my head.
The type of station platforms you think of when someone references the New York metro system. Not to mention the fun artwork plastered all over the outer walls. And, a typeface unlike any other in the system. One that evokes imagery of Eastern Asian texts.
Fast forward a little while and we find ourselves at Paulsternstrasse. This station was designed by Rainer G. Rümmler, the architect behind a majority of Belin’s post-war station designs. My other favourite of his is the next stop on the U7 at Rorhdamm.
Unfortunately, I’ve lost a lot of the punch of the colours. But the deep colours and playful design are ones that I could have sat at for hours. Alas, I couldn’t. The next train was never more than 10 minutes away, though thankfully, often far sooner.
I had to put a lot of thought into the next stint as I’d already made my way out to the northwest of the city and was now tasked with a good few stations on no fewer than 5 lines in the southwest corner of the city. The area controlled by the Americans during their occupation of West Berlin.
My next inclusion will be that of Breitenbachplatz. Again, straying away from the mission's purpose of terrific typefaces. But this one transported me back to a forgotten era. Before the time of German segregation.
See for yourself and let me know what you think.
I’d taken some rather fun photos at the stops before arriving here. But in the interest of variety, I’ve decided to skip over them. Also, because the flash is broken on the camera I picked up.
Anyway, here’s Zehlendorf. Another happy accident on the way to the aforementioned Wannsee.
After this journey I headed back up inside the Ringbahn. To S-Schöneberg. Which has a nautical themed gangway. If The Little Mermaid can be classed as nautical.
The project was part of a 2018 push by DB to enhance 17 stations around the city. Alongside wider measures to make the trains more punctual, and to increase the quality and service of the transport network.
As daylight was running out, so was my desire to continue jumping from train to train. However, I just had the Potsdamer Platz lights to photograph before calling it a day.
In retrospect, this is true. But in actuality, I had planned to photograph a couple of stations on the U4. This is kind of a big deal considering it is only 5 stations long.
If I had to choose, I would say it is my favourite line. It is completely impractical. Connecting two arbitrary stations in Schöneberg, which have no value to me (similar to the Waterloo and City line in London).
But the stations are quaint, the typeface is old-timey, and the area above ground oozes West Berlin (West German) extravagance. So much so, that I felt I’d ascended into Paris when I first found my way out here in September.
Moreover, I finally made it to Bahnhof Potsdamer Platz. Exiting out the completely wrong stairwell, I was afforded a view of the dazzling Mall of Berlin before finding the spot.
At the start of this article, I spent a lot of time talking about my inspiration for this piece. Therefore, I must reference this video, which showed me how striking the sign for this station is when illuminated. The boxy design covering the large entrance hall has quasi-brutalist qualities and has been seared into my memory ever since I first saw it.
So I’m going to leave it there. Here is the final image of the day.
Would love to hear which was your favourite image 📸🚉
Listen to both parts of my Berlin by Bahn experience here: