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Berlin Marathon, Transporting Vibes
Berlin, Germany
11:15 local time, 24th september 2006
© 2006 Michael Stoss, All Rights Reserved.
It was the first time, I had a look on this big marathon (in fact it belongs to the world marathon majors and it is considered to be one of the fastest as well). In the beginning I was not sure, if one would consider people transporting only themselves a proper transportation theme. But yes, naturally it IS transportation in its very sense. But apart from this physical meaning, I could feel a more metaphysical meaning as well. The 40.000 runners were cheered and encouraged along the 42 km long way by 1 million people and they did it for the favourite sports stars and the average runners alike. Every once in a while, the runners met music groups which tried to encourage them further and it is this feeling, I wanted to show in the end.
My first shooting spot was directly opposite the "Gedächtniskirche" a church which had been destroyed in WW 2. It was never reconstructed to serve as a war memorial and it is considered one of the Berlin landmarks. It was here I could see Haile Gebreselassie pass by with a breathtaking speed. But from this spot I could hear the sound of drums and I decided to go there and have a look. At kilometer 34 of the track I found a drummers group, called "Bloco Calango" which accompanied the runners nearly permanently with their rhythms. I had no sound recording device with me, but they gave me kind permission to add a piece of this actual rhythm to the pano from CD, but without the cheering people of course.