June 8 – October 26, 2025
Berlin: A Jewish Ode to the Metropolis, showcases photographs by Portland photographer Jason Langer. The project is deeply personal to Langer, a reconciliation of impressions of the Holocaust that were seeded in him as a 10-year-old living on a kibbutz in Israel. Even after moving to America, Langer carried a deep fear of Germany, and Berlin, in particular. Years later, he set out for Berlin to confront and capture these impressions in film.
Explaining the personal, cultural, and historical complexity of the subject, Langer says, “It’s a historical project about Berlin through the eyes of a Jewish person two generations later, and how much that threat of death and annihilation has transferred to my generation and beyond.”
The photographs themselves feel timeless, characteristic of Langer’s work. His photographs are formally composed, rich and moody, favoring darker tones. Langer lends a poetic sensibility to classic views of Berlin, including historical remnants of the Holocaust and Jewish life, as well as intimate glimpses that tell specific, individual stories. It’s the juxtaposition between the broad strokes of a horrifying history and the smallest intricacies of daily life that Langer brings to the attention of the viewer.
“I tried to photograph a history of the city,” Langer explains, “representing multiple generations and eras, all the way from medieval times through modernity. By mixing that all together, I wanted to give viewers an experience of what it’s like to be in contemporary Berlin, surrounded by the weight of the city’s history, for good and bad.”
Funding has been generously provided by the Arnold and Augusta Newman Photography Fund of OJMCHE.
Image Above: Jason Langer, Anhalter Banhof, 2011
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