Merlin – Reading under the A100

Merlin was photographed in 2020 under the A100 in Berlin: a man who reads in a place the city mostly crosses at speed.

I spent time there rather than taking a single news picture. The photographs follow his attention — the book, the concrete, the traffic above — and the dignity of a pause that the motorway does not plan for.

I wanted a reportage that stays with a person without reducing him to a social category. The title names him first; the place comes after.