2016 · 35mm Film Photography / FM2 · Berlin, Germany
At the end of 2015, Maggie and Teresa invited me to visit Germany.
In early 2016, we went.
For twelve days we moved from city to city —
Frankfurt, Berlin, Leipzig, Cologne, Würzburg —
carrying bags and the quiet excitement of being somewhere new.
This photograph was taken in Berlin.
We had just stepped out of the subway.
No planning.
No waiting for the “right” moment.
I simply lifted the camera and pressed the shutter.
Sometimes travel isn’t about landmarks or famous places.
It’s about these in-between seconds —
walking up the stairs, adjusting to the light, looking around to understand where you are.
Underground, everything felt close and dim.
Then suddenly, the city opened above us.
Air. Space. Light.
Film holds these moments differently.
The grain softens the edges, like memory itself.
Not sharp facts, but feelings.
When I look at this image now, I don’t only see Berlin.
I remember the sound of trains.
Footsteps on concrete.
Friends walking ahead of me.
And that gentle uncertainty of travel — not lost, just becoming.
Sometimes the most ordinary moments stay with us the longest.
— Percy Lin