Mystic Nights in Berlin
From 2012 to 2020, the artist Romeo Alaeff took to the streets of Berlin at night, armed with a camera, searching for the feeling of home. But what does »home« mean when you are – like Alaeff, a German resident born in the United States to a family with roots in Yemen, the former USSR, Poland and Israel – a foreigner in a foreign land?
Romeo Alaeff & Hatje Cantz
Mystic Nights in Berlin
2020
In der Fremde: Pictures from Home is the documentation of Alaeff’s search: a haunting collection of cinematic images tinged with deep longing, which touch on themes of migration, belonging and homeland. Inspiring essays by Yuval Noah Harari, Christian Rattemeyer, Charles Simic, Eva Hoffman, Rory MacLean, Joseph Kertes and the artist illuminate a wide range of different perspectives.
Our studio designed the book in collaboration with Alaeff and the publishing house Hatje Cantz. It was particularly important to get the colors of the printed images just right and to strike the perfect balance of typographic detail.
The colors, such as the midnight blue used for the type in the essay section and the orange on the cover, underscore the melancholy mood of the photos. The transition between the book’s two parts is marked by a tactile change as well, shifting from a heavy matte paper in the photo section to a lighter, semiopaque weight for the essays.
Pictures: Romeo Alaeff
