We were lucky to catch up with Jorge Andres Castillo recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jorge Andres, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The Berlin Wall

In January 1989, I was studying Communication Design at the University of Essen in West Germany. On the billboard of the faculty, I saw a paper where international students were invited to attend a German culture seminar in the city of Berlin. The organizer was the DAAD the German student exchange service. The workshop aimed to deepen knowledge about German culture: geography, economics, art, politics, language, and related fields. We would receive classes in different institutions for 7 days. These trips were organized to give foreign students more information about German culture.
When I enrolled in the seminar, I set myself the goal of conducting a photo essay on the Berlin wall. You must understand that Berlin was the friction point of the Cold War and was the subject of daily conversation in the cafeteria of all German universities. There were great urban myths of what was happening on the other side. The outrage that they had people trapped on the other side without being able to have free movement.

I borrowed a Rolleiflex 6×6 from the school and saved money to buy the most rolls I could get. I was using my 35mm Nikon and the medium format camera.

When I arrived in Berlin I went crazy to take pictures, it was night. The same seminar had scheduled a series of stops where they let us get off the bus to take pictures. When I reached the Wall, I was perplexed. People would walk around totally used to it. At specific points, they had built some stands where the tourist could climb for a view on the other side. People took the pictures there. I made my selfie, of course.
Seeing the other side, I got the stubborn idea of going to the other side and photographing that. When I asked my fellow travelers, who wanted to visit the other side of the Wall, nobody had it in mind. They told me that there was nothing to see, that they would not let me pass, that perhaps I would not return. Of the entire group of 100 students, I was the; Only interested in crossing to see the other side. I armed myself with courage and prepared to cross the border. I did the rigorous investigation and visited Checkpoint Charlie.
After rigorous passport control, the guards let me through.

They made me change 25 German marks into their currency and told me that I had to leave East Berlin before 12 at night, like Cinderella.

When I entered, it was as if I had entered a sizeable theme park or museum. The facades had not been painted in years. The Trabant, the only cart, passed slowly in front of me and felt a strong smell of burning gasoline in the environment. All the people walked slowly. I was impressed to note that when crossing at the traffic lights, people did not push to cross the street when the light changed to green. There was a brief pause before starting to walk. I understood that people had no reason to get anywhere faster. There was no concept of efficiency. Optimization of the time to finish the day before or to better perform daily achievements. People stood for a long time in front of the semi-empty showcases.

In the post office, it took me hours to send some postcards. The line was not very long, but the clerk took all the time in the world and talked with each “customer.” At first, I thought I was friendly with people, but then I realized that I was doing a little research on those who used the service. The stamps were rubber stamps placed on the tip of a long wooden stick with which he hit the cards. He chose the rod according to the rate.

A small detail finished convincing me that something strange was happening. After paying for the stamps, the official did not give me the postcards to throw in the mailbox, he told me: “I’ll take care of it,” and everyone in the queue turned to see me. Those postcards were to be read and examined by a paranoid and decaying regime. I must say that the letters were unusual. They were hand-made from recycled materials.

I remember it was night, and I still had money, and I had to spend it. So I decided to enter what looked like a nightclub. It was a disco for teenagers. I remember that Bad by Michael Jackson was on. I sat at a table, and the waiter told me that I could not occupy a table. That I had to fill a vacant seat at an already occupied table. At the designated table, there was a group of teenagers younger than me. I introduced myself and forced a conversation. I wanted to know things about life in the GDR. But I didn’t get much. I realized that they were causes. There is a lot of paranoia from the state spy trying to get information from them. So I told them about me and my life. I asked them if they would not like to live in the west, and a girl told me, “we would not be able to survive there. There, you have to step on others to survive”.

As I still had money, I ordered a scotch, Johnny Walker Red. One of the boys at the table told me he would only see scotch on special occasions such as weddings or baptisms. It caught my attention that they celebrated baptisms. Time passed, and I realized that it was already 10 o’clock at night. I gave a round of beers to the tablemates with the money I had left and went out to the street to head to West Berlin. But when I left, everything was dark. There was no signage on the roads. With the drinks and the excitement, I was a little surprised. I walked for a while, but I couldn’t get anyone on the street to guide me. I closed my eyes, breathed for a brief time, and when I opened them and scanned the horizon, I saw a glow in the cloud in the distance. I realized that I had to walk that way. It was indeed the light that arose from West Berlin, and I managed to cross before midnight.

Seven months later, while I was developing photos in the alternative laboratory in the bathroom of my apartment in Essen, I heard the news that the Wall had fallen. We finished the semester and went to Berlin in December 1989 to photograph the reunification party. I was able to go to Berlin a year later, and I was able to photograph the places I had visited years before, but now without the Wall.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I fell in love with photography at a young age. I was ten years old and always jumped behind my dad’s camera to record the family’s events. It was most important for me to cultivate the family’s memories. That’s how I started in photography. Soon enough, I developed my black and white film in an improvised darkroom in the bathroom. I was busy shooting for my high school cultural and sports activities and started doing it for some money among friends. I enrolled in Journalism when I went to college, but I got frustrated because I realized that my communication medium is not written words but images. I looked for Universities outside Venezuela, my home country, and ended up in Germany. I got accepted at the Universiti of Essen. I studied Communications Design, and I loved it. It was hard at first, with the culture and the weather, but it was the place to be if you wanted to learn photography. I photographed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and traveled Europe with my camera. In 1992 I was back in Caracas, opened my studio, and started teaching at the University.
I worked on exciting projects and went more toward Architectural Photography. In 2000 the mayor newspaper at the time called me to be the chief of the Photography department. The goal was to lead the transition from film to digital photography. I had to produce with my team the pictures for the newspaper every day, and parallel to that, I put in place a Digital Workflow to teach the staff. That experience led me to the New York Times, where I would learn how they have transitioned to the digital workflow. After seven years, the Photography department was 100% digital, and I quit my job to return to my firm, which changed to JACVISUAL. I shot mainly Architectural photography and did a couple of books for clients on their work. Due to the turmoil in Venezuela, I moved to Miami with my family in 2017, and I have been doing my work and primarily teaching photography fundamentals.

My pursuit in photography is image quality. I consider myself a documentalist, and I want to be true to the subject.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2014 I found myself struggling to make a living in Caracas, where a dictatorship had overturned power. I decided to look for a life and migrate to another country with my family for our safety. I ended up in Miami, where I had three brothers, and since then, I started to make my clientele and reinvent myself. You have to earn the client’s trust, which takes time.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I think word of mouth is the most potent source of new clients. When you deliver a good job, people can see it and ask: Who did it? That’s when the sales happen. Your client will recommend you for their communications needs. Presence in social media is essential, but a satisfied client is worth millions.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jacvisual.com/
• Instagram: @jacvisual
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JACVISUAL
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacvisual/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacvisual
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JorgeAndr%C3%A9sCastillovisual
• Other: https://tropicult.com/2014/11/witness-to-history-jorges-andres-castillo-at-the-fall-of-the-berlin-wall/

Image Credits
@jacvisual