Photographer Zeno Spyropoulos first encountered the young expat
community in Berlin while visiting a friend living in the city, in June 2018.
As he found himself quickly immersed within a diverse group of friends
from across the globe, Zeno was struck by the speed and intensity with
which these friendships formed. Berlin is widely known for its extreme
party culture; but for Zeno, its pull lay in the unparalleled openness of
its inhabitants, who had abandoned a life of frustration, boredom or
alienation, for a place where living is cheap and one can express oneself
freely and without judgement. It is this side of Berlin that Zeno felt compelled
to capture, prompting his decision to return and spend exactly one
year, from July 2018 – July 2019, documenting the scene and the people in
it.
Using an analogue point-and-shoot camera, Zeno flits between his
subjects with an unobtrusive lens, capturing spontaneous instances
of tenderness, ecstasy or calm. Showing raw moments of intimacy, and
creative or sexual expression as they naturally occur, his pictures
normalise a culture of sexual and bodily freedom. Although the city’s
extremes form a backdrop to his story, they are not its focus. His focus
is its people, and their visceral connection with one another; sometimes
communicated physically through bodies intimately entangled,
at other times through more subtle gestures. Defining “young and
renegade” as living through the senses, this tactile series is characterised
by a boldness, articulating a sense of living freely and in the moment.
– Polly Bindman
