When after a detour of 20 years I returned to making photographs in 2001, I picked up where I left off at Cranbrook Academy of Art in the late 1970s, walking through my old lessons and the advice of my teachers, and especially that of the sculptor [Michael D. Hall]: to aim for a “crisis”, as he put it, of form.

To this day, the thematics of spook, graffiti, home, and Berlin as earth, edge, and air are for me almost secondary to such heightened attention and formalism.

Working in abandoned Russian military bases in the period 2003-9, I visited literally hundreds of rooms, each stripped of just about everything that could be carted off, and where I was left to see what I might make of floor, wall, window, and light. I found myself organizing making landscapes, stage sets, and exploring feelings of isolation and fear, far away from home.

Presently I work with what little of Berlin that has not yet been turned into an investment opportunity and where, as before, the problem is one of proportion, energy, and a heightened sense of place and perception.

I post current work on Instagram, and I can be reached by email.

Bruce Spear
Berlin, January 2025