Entlang der Oder
('Along the Oder')
Last year, students from the Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie in Berlin travelled along the Oder river with their cameras. Their journey resulted in thirteen series of images that show the Oder region from different perspectives, some documentary, some poetic, and highlight the border region's diversity and liveliness.
There is the series of photographs of young adult refugees from Ukraine who have found a temporary home in Słubice on the Polish side of the river and meet up every day on a basketball court. There are the pictures of two villages, one on the German, one on the Polish side, divided by the river yet nevertheless united by shared customs and memories. There is the documentation of pieces of sheet metal they found, which the water of the Oder has turned into a shiny golden, albeit rusty treasure, or also the photographs of Germany's most northernmost ski jump that is actually only rarely covered in snow, and from whose top you can see Poland.
The Ostkreuzschule für Fotografie has existed since 2005 and evolved from Fotografenagentur Ostkreuz. Over seven semesters, the students learn to see the world through the eyes of a photographer, and the design and photography theory basics, as well as studying the history of photography.