Dougal Squires chats to Berlin street photographer Christian Reister…

“I’m not one to say, “back in the day everything was better than now,'” says Christian Reister, a photographer who seems to relish change and movement, and the natural dynamism of cities and people.

Perhaps best known for his photographs of Alexanderplatz – collected together in his wonderful book “Alex” – Reister’s work is about capturing the life stories of ordinary people and the environments that bear silent witness to those tales.

Though known as a street photographer, Christian could just as well be described as a documentary historian. His camera takes in a broad sweep of citizenry and places: the (unfashionably) unkempt and the grey-haired as well as the dashing and dramatic.

One sunny, blustery morning, I chatted with him in his shared garden and the front room of his Prenzlauer Berg flat about his life and work – past, present, and future – his collaborations, and the Fenster 61 gallery project, which he runs on Torstrasse.

Click the video below to hear more…