The Lockdown Melancholy by Inna Malinovaya

The Lockdown Melancholy: a short time travel to post-soviet Berlin

The story reflects the melancholic Zeitgeist of East Berlin’s young generation at the beginning of the 90s, just after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The story portrays the importance of love and intimacy in the realms of a big city during times of total crisis and historical changes that challenge the certainty of tomorrow. The outfits highlight the subcultural individuality in front of tall and monochrome soviet buildings that by themselves have the power to diminish individuality.

In order to convey the atmosphere through the photo series, we took a train to Marzahn, a neighbourhood in eastern Berlin. The shoot took place right before the coronavirus lockdown, so a certain pre-apocalyptic mood was present, a strange and chilly feeling was as if felt in the air.

Although we could see some people walking with bags full of groceries and toilet paper on the streets, the hood was generally empty. When we finally arrived at our location filled with the huge soviet blocks, I had a flashback to my childhood and youth, which I spent in post-soviet Ukraine, where I lived before I moved to Berlin. The same case for our photographer, who was born and raised in Russia. While we were shooting and changing our outfits on the streets, we embarked on some ridiculous reactions from people who despite living in 2020 – the era of diversity, digitalization, and unlimited information in one of the most diverse and open-minded cities of the world, were staring at us as if we were aliens. Parents with their children stopped and gave us strange looks for several minutes until we finally reacted with questioning looks ourselves. Was it because of our outfits or simply because they were confused about seeing people shooting in their area in such context? As if questioning why would someone come up with an idea of performing a fashion shoot while most of the population is on a hunt for hand sanitizers in preparation for the apocalypse.

Nonetheless, I had a feeling that time just stopped in that place. The juxtaposition of people who live inside of those houses, each with their own individual story, yet outside all you see are these tall monochromes soviet blocks that are all the same, equalizing the melancholic landscape with their big grey walls and hundreds of tiny lights. And within these countless walls lives love, intimacy and hope, which we wanted to visualize in these images.

This is the reason why I feel that in times of self-isolation, economical crisis and hopeful waiting for the next chapter of this entire lockdown narrative, we have a lot in common with that young generation that experienced the post soviet Berlin era. And today in Marzahn you can feel it stronger than ever.