On November 9th 1989 the Berlin Wall came down; an event which rang in the end of the East German communist GDR, led to the reunification of German and – above all – marked the end of the Cold War.
 
During the late 80s and in 1990 Berlin based photographer Robert Conrad extensively photographed the Berlin Wall and related installations. Thirty years on, his work not only provides valuable historical documents but also offers a collection of fascinating photos. In the broadest sense – bordering on the cynical – it could be said that the Berlin Wall, a brutal manifestation of urban architecture, conformed to his chosen field of architecture photography.

Conrad’s photos are a haunting expression of architecture deployed by an authoritative state to divide, isolate and suppress. Thirty years after they were taken the photos don’t just take us back to a momentous episode of 20th century history. They also take on an awkward topicality at a time when across the Western world the post war liberal values we have grown up with are increasingly undermined and called into question by populist movements at both ends of the political spectrum.