In 1985 I began traveling along the Iron Curtain, the fences and walls of the East/West border that lay across Central Europe splitting Germany in two and tracing the western edges of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. It felt permanent at the time, the division of the world between Soviet and American spheres of influence, though even a casual reading of the long history of this region would have suggested otherwise. As an American born in 1954 I had grown up with the Cold War and its zero sum logic. It defined my world-view, neatly symmetrical, them and us, with a nuclear trip wire in between.

Using a 4x5 view camera, I focused on this scarred, but often beautiful landscape marked by fences, walls, and guard towers. In 1989 I photographed the opening of the Berlin Wall, and returned several times during the '90s, and most recently in 2004, to document the rebuilding of the now unified city. The result is a project spanning 19 years of history--a unique document--available here on the web, and now as a book from Princeton Architectural Press.

Go to the Lost Border