Beyond Reach

If one now embarks on a journey on foot or by bike along the 91 mile-long so-called Mauerweg (the wall trail) along the former border between West Berlin and Brandenburg, one is struck by the abundance of lush growth and woodland around the circumference of the city. But, travelling along the trail, now and again you come across memorials to people often male, often young who lost their lives trying to cross the border from East to West. At least 141 people were killed along the Berlin Wall or died as a direct result of the border regime between 1961 and 1989. In her book, Irish photographer Ethna O'Regan (b. 1971) takes the viewer on a visual journey using landscape as a metaphor in order to create a feeling of remembrance for the victims of the Berlin Wall. She has produced photographic series in Ireland, America, Germany, and the Ukraine and has exhibited them internationally.