Ein Mädchen schlägt Räder im Alten Park.
Böiger Wind kündigt Wechsel an.
Üppige Pflanzenpracht bezeugt den Sommer.
Mit Marc im Park stundenlang.
Das Feld um uns herum voll blühender Wildrosenbüsche.
Den ganzen Nachmittag droht Gewitter.
Ein paar Neohippies machen Akroyoga bei Downtempomusik.
Verschwindet die Sonne fröstelt es, wenn ärmellos.
Ein Treffen im Halbschatten des blühenden Kastanienbaums.
Mit Lachen und Freu(n)den esse ich.
Nachteskühle durchfließt die Straßenstadt.
Der Tag war schwül und warm.
Mit Freunden von Herzen umgeben.
Nächtliche Tour durch Lindenduft.
Es regnet zu wenig.
Ein Raum gefüllt voll Abschied und Sicher-Halt.
Bleigraue Wolkendecke trifft auf Wind, Ecke Sonnenallee.
Regenplatzer schwer wie Kugeln in der Sommerstadt.
"Der Himmel weint, weil du wegziehst," schreibt mir ein Freund.
Leise tröpfeln die Regenreste in den federartigen Blättern der Bäume.
Es ist der längste Tag im Jahr.
"You're built for the life you're living now....
You can't fail when you're doing what you love."¹
What I love is a secret.
¹ Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful (2023), 249.
Daniel Kossmann
Blurred Farewell
Photography & Poetry
2026
In June 2026, I found myself in a situation that I had long anticipated yet which had never previously seemed like a real option: I had to leave Berlin. Leaving a place often means leaving behind people that have grown close to one’s heart and mind. Leaving also often means transformation. Places once visited, people once met, transform into memories, embodied knowledge, that accompany one wherever one goes. And I was longing for transformation, longing for change, longing for growth as a human being. It was time to realise. Not only to leave Berlin, but also to realise a small project that had been developing in my mind, that I had envisioned over the last couple of months. I wanted to photograph people who had been part of my life in Berlin over the last 14 years. I wanted to create a series of people who had grown dear to my heart, as they sat in their living rooms, in their Berlin homes.
Inspired by a conversation with Lebanese photographer Roger Mokbel in Dar es Salaam in 2023, as well as by David Armstrong’s photo book All Day Every Day (2002), I wanted to create a series of blurry, raw, black-and-white photographs whose subjects were recognisable to me but not to others. Just like memories are. This is the outcome.