Since moving to Berlin in 2021, Argentinian photographer and filmmaker Marina Mónaco has been immersed in the city’s creative undercurrents. Working internationally but rooted in Berlin’s energy, she began her series Neue Welle as a way of discovering the city’s alternative music scene.
How did your photo series Neue Welle begin? What sparked the idea for the series and its name?
I started the series in 2023. It was completely unexpected – it just happened. I think it was parallel to my experience here. At that time, something beautiful started happening in Germany. During post-Covid, a new group of emerging artists started creating music in their rooms because there was nothing else to do. It was a way of making music with zero budget, very local. I started going backstage on my own. I’d ask, “Can I take some photos backstage?” I wanted to portray what was going on in Germany. It reminded me of the Neue Deutsche Welle, a music movement from the 1970s, which is where the name Neue Welle originated.
Your photos seem suspended in time – they make you question whether they were taken in 1980s Berlin or the present day. How do you evoke the past through your work?
I think people I photographed feel a nostalgic longing for this time. They dress in vintage clothes and their sound is inspired by artists from the 70s and 80s. On my side, shooting analog adds to this suspended sense of time. Sometimes when I look at the pictures, I think: how the fuck is this my life? It doesn’t make sense to me, because it feels like something from the past. It’s so weird.
I’m always paying attention to signs, typography and details that tell me a place is going to disappear. I try to find and shoot those places before they’re gone.
What drew you to the people you photographed? Was it their presence or the aesthetics that caught your attention?
At first, I saw it almost like documentary work, because it is real, they’re wearing their own clothes, it’s them as they are. And really, the connection is pure intuition. I don’t fully understand it myself. I think it comes from the fact that when I was younger, I never really explored myself in terms of style. So now, when I see someone with such a strong presence, or with clothes and a look that feels entirely their own, I just admire it. It grabs my attention immediately.
But now I see more clearly that these people are also, in a way, self-portraits of me. Because I spend a lot of time in my head, in stories. And my photos are a way of saying: This was real. This really happened. This is how we felt.
What did you want to show through Neue Welle?
The passing of time, the fact that nothing stays the same. Berlin makes me feel this strongly, especially now with gentrification. I just want to remember how it felt, how it was, the way people dressed, the atmosphere of the moment.But lately, it has become harder because I now understand German quite a lot. Before, the distance of not understanding allowed me to separate myself from situations. That made me notice details and I photographed them in that environment. Now, I feel the need to take a train to the middle of nowhere, to photograph someone in a small town. I think I need that status of being an outsider for my work to really function. Now that Berlin feels more like home, I’m searching for that new edge.
What role does the city play in your photography?
I think I was in a very beautiful relationship with Berlin. For me, the city was a playground – a place where I could explore myself on so many levels. It was also a constant conversation between what the city made me feel and what I reflected in my pictures.
But it wasn’t just in my work. Berlin also changed me personally. There’s so much space here, so much room for everyone. It feels like you can just be whoever you want to be and that’s fine.
I think in my photographs, you can really see how special the city is to me. Berlin is literally a character in my work – one of the main characters. You can see the love I have for it, the way I wanted to photograph every corner.
Do you plan to expand on this series or do similar projects in the future?
I think it will never be finished. I would love to expand it, maybe to more countries and the outskirts of Germany. I need local people and I want to go to concerts that are from the smaller towns, because they are the coolest. I think subculture is always kind of there. It’s more about whether I have a connection with it. It’s always nice to have been there with them and captured that moment. It feels important in some ways, even though it’s a very small thing.
- Follow Marina on IG for updates @marinaamonaco.
