Letters
from
Nahariya

Letters from Nahariya is a photographic portrait of the Nahariya Kiez, a green-grey suburban settlement in the south of Berlin.The story of the Nahariya Kiez is told a little differently by each resident I meet. Some have found a retreat here from the hustle and bustle of the big city and tell me about a good neighborhood. Others are frustrated with its current state, tell me about how much it has changed and want to move away. Letters from Nahariya is a photographic examination of the Nahariya neighborhood in Lichtenrade on the edge of the metropolitan district of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. I met with one of its initiators, residents from the first days and people who recently moved here.

Liebe Ulrike,

Zur Erinnerung an eine schöne
und spannungsreiche Zeit der
Zusammenarbeit. In der
Hoffnung, daß nicht alle
Visionen vergangen sind.
       
       Grüßt,
           Reinhart Kraft

11.5.1996

Letters from Nahariya on display in the Nahariya Kiez in 2021. While the series was on display around the neighborhood's central square, I had a chance to have many conversations and encounters with residents. The whole project was built around exchange and confrontation with the many different perspectives and experiences lived daily by both long-established residents and younger generations. In 2021 a Quartier-management was put in place to monitor the development of the neighborhood and have a positive impact through community activities. This is common in areas of the city that are in danger of developing into a “Brennpunkt” (places with for example an above average crime rate, high social tensions). The Letters from Nahariya project is on hold for now but may continue at some point in the future to reflect on how the neighborhood has changed.

The project includes numerous photographs, several interviews and archive material from the development phase of the neighborhood. A publication is being planned.