Ian Berry Two brothers meet during the Christmas season after having been separated by the Berlin Wall. 1963.
"I had heard the wall was being opened for the first time for a couple of days over Christm
(...) as, so I went over there to have a look. I had no problems crossing into East Berlin. My intention was to pick up a family in the East that I could follow to the border. But everyone I spoke to was so nervous; they were suspicious of photographers. I tried for several days with no luck. Finally, as I was standing on a platform on the West German side looking for likely candidates, I saw this man who was having his papers checked. And I noticed on the East side that there was another man who looked remarkably like him. Of course, as soon as the man from the West came through, he immediately spotted his brother and started running. They hadn't seen each other for years, but they were wearing the same type of clothing, as though they had been together the day before. This is one of those pictures that encapsulates the situation of the time. People often think when they are on one side of a wall, there must be ogres on the other. When in fact, in this case, they were often friends and family, who could have been living identical lives."
- Ian Berry © Ian Berry | Magnum Photos
