It has a very interesting and ironic history…..read on – source: Wikipedia

In 1964, Walter Ulbricht, leader of the Socialist Unity Party which governed East Germany, decided to allow the construction of a television tower on Alexanderplatz, modelled on the Fernsehturm Stuttgart. IT was intended as a show of the GDR’s strength, while its location is thought to have been deliberately chosen so that it would impose on views of West Berlin’s Reichstag building (when viewed from the front).

And this, in my opinion, is the best part – The Pope’s Revenge.

When the sun shines on the Fernsehturm’s tiled stainless steel dome, the reflection usually appears in the form of a crucifix. This effect was neither predicted nor desired by the planners. As a jibe against the atheist foundations of the Communist government, and the ongoing suppression of church institutions in East Germany, Berliners immediately named the luminous cross Rache des Papstes, or “Pope’s Revenge”.

(insert shameless plug – you can have your very own, limited-edition print of this image by clicking HERE)

Our original plans were to fly from Paris, where we attended the OFFF conference, to Berlin…….BUT, the folks at Easy Jet decided to make that impossible by checking us in at the airport, and then going on strike and walking off the job. You read that correctly. Juan and I, after going through security around 6:00pm and checking in, sat and waited….and waited….and then our flight was delayed….and an hour later it was CANCELLED, and guess what? There was NOBODY from Easy Jet at the airport to help us. We were left to fend for ourselves and there were some folks on our (cancelled) flight who went through the same thing the day before. Long story short, the wonderful folks at Paris Orly Sud airport took us to a hotel at 3:00am, we slept for about 5 hours and decided to take a train to Berlin instead.

Alas, this is a portrait of one of the ladies who took care of us during our first leg of the train ride to Berlin.

We rented bicycles from Fahrrad Box, and this gentleman helped set us up with our bikes, making sure we had the right frame size and height. There is no better way to explore Berlin than via bicycle, and one of the most incredible things we noticed was that the bicyclist was king. There are special bike paths on the street and when they’re abstent in certain areas, vehicles share the road with no qualms. Pedestrians get out of your way and the roads are easy to navigate at all hours of the day and even late at night.

If you make it to Berlin, we HIGHLY recommend you rent your bicycles from Fahrrad Box!

During our biking tour of Berlin, we stopped at Checkpoint Charlie and noticed there were 2 men and a woman posing for photos (for 1 Euro) with tourists. I went up and started talking to them and made this portrait of the female dressed as a solider.

Shortly after that stop, we happened to come across a photography lab called Das Foto Image Factory. I am currently exploring different mounting options for a collection of images I have and so we started talking to one of the employees there…..and I took his photo as we left.

Due to time constraints, most of the street art that we saw was not in this book, so if anyone out there sees this post and can help me credit the artists below, I would greatly appreciate it.  Just drop me a line at catalina@catalinaphotography.com

Enjoy!

Banksy

Banksy, we think.

is this Banksy too?

Please help us ID these amazing works of street art!

Thank you @jmphotography for the ID – image below is by Blu

I was in complete and utter shock at the amazing weather we had while in Europe. Each day, we had a beautiful sun and skies filled with variations of clouds, from whispy formations to puffy, full-on clouds.

To me, the most amazing thing about these photos and the weather we had were the intense tones of blue that the sky had at different times of the day.

Some of the photos in this blog post can be purchased as 16×20 limited-edition fine-art prints HERE.

Needless to say, it was an emotionally charged trip and a visually stunning one at that.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting a series of images from this trip; from portraits of folks in different countries to some of my favorite abstract and personal images from our journey. I hope you come back often and check them out.

In case you envision one of these images hanging in your home or place of business, you’re in luck!

The images below (and many more to come!) are now available as limited edition fine art prints HERE

And now, here are a few images from Berlin, beautiful Berlin!

Potsdamer Platz

The Berlin Wall

Through AC&M, a Charlotte-based Latino marketing company who handles all of American Airlines marketing programs targeting the Hispanic market in the US, Juan and I created an ad for American Airline’s “Give & Go Sweepstakes,” where you can win a trip for 2 to Rio de Janeiro and a chance to see a professional soccer match in Rio.

Juan was Art Director during the photo shoot, while I found the model, props and created the image for the ad. We shot in Coney Island back in June, had marvelous weather and a terrific model, Raj.

Well-received by both AC&M and American Airlines, here is our ad, which has been published in several soccer magazines, including the  Eurosport Magazine (in Spanish) and Kick Magazine.

To be precise, this photo was taken around 4:00am, amidst the dancing and fun that we all had that day/night/eve.

Andrea was taking a break from the festivities so I quickly grabbed my camera and made this image.

Isn’t she a gorgeous bride?

I recently photographed NBC’s TV personality and superstar Cat Greenleaf, host of  New York Nonstop’s show Talk Stoop. If you’re a regular visitor to my blog, Cat might look familiar to you because I photographed her and her beautiful family back in January.

The popular eatery chain Cosi is now a sponsor of Talk Stoop and to announce this new relationship to its clientele, Cosi wanted to create a poster that showed Cat sitting in front of her famous stoop, the stoop where she has interviewed such celebrities as Rosie Perez, Betsy Johnson, New Kids on the Block, Eddie Falco & so many more (click here for more!)

Next time you walk into a Cosi store here in New York, you might just see this poster!

I have a list of things I want to see/do/visit/photograph while I’m on this earth, some that happen in New York, and ever since I heard of the Coney Island Mermaid Parade a few summers ago, I knew I had to go and see this crazy parade with my own eyes.

Packed to the brim, I rode the Q train down to the second to last stop on the line, the NY Aquarium, and tried to figure out where in this sea of people I could catch a good view of the parade.

The streets and boardwalk were just as packed on this beautiful, sunny and cloudless Saturday as any train platform at 5:00pm on a weekday. PACKED. Like sardines in a can. Like the train I had just taken to Coney Island. Sigh.

Alas, along with several hundred (if not thousands) of people, I made my way to the boardwalk and little by little, made my way to the front row of the parade route. I went alone and I was very lucky to stand next to 2 very funny couples – we all ended up giving names to each of the mermaids that came down the route, including “goth mermaid,” “papa smurf mermaid,” “lazy mermaid,” “pissed off at BP mermaid,” and a slew of other names, each given according to the participant’s costume.

Andy Warhols, complete with cameras and wigs.

In case you’re scratching your head and trying to figure out this image, it’s a man who was wearing a shark in between his legs.

In all this, I had heard of the crazy costumes and seen some photos but I had no idea I would be seeing so many pasties and a few bare breasts here and there.

It just so happened that we were standing next to this metal structure covered in blue, silk-like material – little did we know that this was the platform for some aerial silk performers, so we had not one, but TWO shows we could see from our vantage point, so I was able to catch a few shots of these beautiful, strong women who made dancing in the air look so easy!

A few more shots from the day…..

If you haven’t, then let me tell you I’m a big fan of PSFK and you should be too.

PSFK founder Piers Fawkes recently asked if I could create some abstract imagery for their Future of Retail report. I received descriptions of the 10 future retail trends and it was completely up to me to find and create images to describe ideas like “world as a retail experience” and “every store as a flag ship.”

This is the kind of photography work I sink my teeth into; abstract and open to interpretation by you, the viewer.

You can request your free copy of the Future of Retail Report here and below are some of the images I created for this report.