These photographs were made on my first trip to Berlin in Oct 1989. I had seen photographs of the Berlin Wall, usually taken in daylight, and had seen it depicted in films by German -and other- film makers, but I wanted to make my own pictures of it, preferably at night. For decades the wall had been a feature of the Berlin landscape, but for a visitor it was breathtaking to experience first hand the ultimate symbol and full reality of that divided city. In that first week of October 1989 there was no indication that in less than 4 weeks East Germany and the Soviet Union would start to collapse. At the time it was like photographing the Great Wall or the Pyramids: a faded but still potent monument that wasn't expected to disappear anytime soon.