We‘re celebrating the 30th anniversary fall of the Berlin Wall (1961-1989)

Because the world is too small for walls!

An interview with David Mallon and his father, Ludwig Rauch

Of course this has to do with David, who is my son. It was David‘s idea to use „Snow of Yesterday“ for the „Bridges over Walls“ collection on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of fall of the Berlin Wall. Because walls and borders are not water under the bridge, but still quite up to date.

I do not have many concrete memories, that‘s clear. Most of what it meant to be living in a country surrounded by walls without freedom of expression, I only found out in retrospect. My dad was a young photographer, but it was forbidden to publish his pictures. Too much reality. He left the country in the beginning of 89. My parents had split up when I was two, but if it had stayed that way, I probably would never have seen him again. In that sense, of course, the walls and the borders and their overcoming are also part of my family history.

Ludwig, can you still remember how the 9th of November thirty years ago ran for you?

The whole day it was already clear that something would be happening. I had gone to the West in January, which was a painful process and a hard decision, leaving everything behind. When Schabowski that day read his note on travel arrangements, I realized: change is going to be starting, now. I took all the films I had out of the fridge, but there were not that many. There was a vending machine on Potsdamer Straße, where you could pull films, and then I spent all night between Checkpoint Charlie and Brandenburger Tor.

David, you have two sons, nine and six years old. Can they still do something with the word DDR?

Your label is called „Souvenir“, the French word for: remember.

David: The word has many levels, quite profane, as every souvenir shop shows, but also more profound ones. And you can remember it well. My wife Karin Önder, with whom I founded the label, and I chose it very intuitively. Karin is of Aramaic origin, her parents were guest workers in Germany. Also in her family memories, stories of crossing borders and going over limits play a role.

Your Brexit hoodie „EUnify“ is simple and punchy: European blue with the yellow stars, and one star is missing.

David: The missing star is on the back. Everyone understands the message. Many people wear it to express that they want to hold on to Europe, to freedom of movement, to peace, to seeking balance, even if not everything is perfect. Many people who wear the hoodie have told me that they are being addressed, that it promotes debates. That is what we want.

Is this still fashion or is it politics? Or something in-between?

Isn ́t it that fashion at its best is always political? Fashion is never just „dressing“. Fashion is current, is Zeitgeist, influenced by the thinking and feeling of a certain epoch, current trends, needs, visions. Streetwear picks up what‘s happening on the street and reflects it. We might just push it a bit further.

Ludwig, your pictures often look like paintings. Is this still photography or what is it?

It is the creation of pictures with the means of photography. It is still photography, as everything in my pictures is a photograph of something that exists. But then, in contrast to classical photography, the work only begins. I have been working for over thirty years as a documentary photographer. I was traveling for national and international magazines to many countries around the world. What moves me, what touches me, I remember with my camera. This can be a historic event like the fall of the wall or a bizarre structure in the sand of the Sahara.These pictures, structures, pieces, which are my personal visual universe I use for my work like a painter uses his color box.

David: I hope so. We are in constant conversation anyway, we know what the other works on, what he thinks about, what moves him.

Photography - Ludwig Rauch
Design - David Mallon