Euphoria and Disillusionment - Capturing Transitions in Images

This content was developed during a workshop at the EUSTORY Next Generation Summit 2019 "Winds of Change - Transitions in Europe" from 15 to 19 October 2019 in Berlin. The Summit brought together 120 participants from Europe and beyond who worked together with experts from the fields of academia, journalism, education and arts to look at and figure out the chances and challenges connected to political transitions.

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The revolutions of 1989/91 led to significant political and economic changes in many Central and Eastern European countries. These transitions changed people’s lives and offered promising opportunities for a bright and prosperous future. Since then, euphoria has quite often been replaced by disillusionment and has led to widespread feelings of nostalgia for pre-transition times.

In this workshop the participants used photography to capture the very personal and emotional costs of these political transitions. Starting points were the many memories each participant’s family and region has to offer. The personal stories generate both optimism and disenchantment, but also prompt several questions: What kind of emotions did this period evoke? What did the families hope for and what did they fear? Which objects represent their dreams and now carry nostalgic memories?

Exploring Berlin with cameras, participants collected pictures and photographs surrounding these stories. Berlin represents the transition in a unique way and is the location of many important landmarks of the German reunification. Combining personal stories with impressions from Berlin, the participants created multi-layered kaleidoscopes of images as an intersection between the past and the present.

Take a look at their creations and listen to the stories the participants collected.