Will McBride – The Berlin Years. Blackbox #15

He came to Berlin in 1955 as a discharged G.I., quickly made friends, and found his subject: youth and youth culture, new beginnings, and zest for life. As part of a “clique,” he was closely involved, photographing from a participatory perspective and thus developing a very personal, existentially-tinged visual language.


Ten years after Will McBride’s death, the Bröhan Museum pays tribute to the influential photographer, whose groundbreaking work is almost inconceivable without post-war Berlin.


The exhibition ‘Will McBride - The Berlin Years’ continues the series of photo exhibitions at the Bröhan Museum. It is also a direct response to the show ‘Berlin in einer Hundenacht. Gundula Schulze Eldowy’, which was on show at the Bröhan Museum in 2024. Just like Gundula Schulze Eldowy, Will McBride came to Berlin as a young man. Both are fascinated by life in this city - Gundula Schulze Eldowy by the East Berlin milieu of the 1970s in Mitte and Will McBride by life in Berlin in the 1950s, which was not yet separated by the Wall but was nevertheless gradually dividing up. Both are observers of their world, whereby Will McBride, for all his detachment, is even more a part of the milieu he depicts than Gundula Schulze Eldowy in her photographs. Their series of works are documents of Berlin life and subtle homages to Berlin.


As part of the EMOP Berlin – European Month of Photography