IN DER FREMDE | PICTURES FROM HOME

"Photographic representations of Berlin often fixate on transgressive parties, political histories or tourist landmarks. In this landscape, In Der Fremde is a singular document. Much like in Robert Frank’s The Americans, the photographs reveal the keen but estranged observations of the Ausländer, the enduring stranger in a strange land. In this context, the images are investigative, but keep their distance; they are impassive and serene, yet also tinged with melancholy and alienation. Technically impressive, the photographs are dark and atmospheric, yet luminous and crisp with detail, like carefully staged film sets. Alaeff appears to make no conscious attempt to document Berlin’s glamorous or seedy underground, even if at times he inadvertently does. Rather, the hauntingly beautiful images depict a sense of longing, a search for home, and an unrequited love for the city."

— Ines Dobosic, Architect and Urban Planner, Berlin.

"The mostly empty spaces seem like stages where a performance has already taken place."

— Alfredo Sosa, The Christian Science Monitor

"[Romeo Alaeff] makes the beauty and mysticism of the mundane visible."

— Neoavantguarde

"Alaeff’s fascination with the mundane, the accessible and the authentic, presents itself casually to the observer, if one is open to the magic of the unexpected."

— Berliner Zeitung (Front Page Story). Clemens Schnur, “Berliner Nacht: Facetten einer dunklen Stadt” (February 4, 2017)

"He captured this loneliness and transience...inspired by that sense of being uprooted...and trying to orient oneself in a new land."

— Garage / Vice Magazine

"Romeo Alaeff works by association, using a tight rapprochement of successive views to engender something totally different, in a kind of discreet, displaced surrealism... He reminds us that while we may be brother and sister, we do not choose our family. Free association, the unexpected, the melancholic and the fantastical are the key to some of these dual images, while others make it clear that the aspects of reality shown do not have to be far removed from each other: in their very ordinariness they can readily generate a kind of poetry... and here we find that endless interplay of automatisms, the waking dream, the Surrealist aura so skillfully, so delightfully renewed for our own time."

— Anne Bertrand. “Un monde,” Biennale de Lyon Art Contemporain, Connivence, Lyon 2001

"Facets of a Dark City. New York photographer Romeo Alaeff roams the streets of Berlin at night to capture scenes with his camera, endeavoring to avoid clichés."

— Berliner Zeitung (Front Page), Clemens Schnur, “Berliner Nacht: Facetten einer dunklen Stadt” (February 4, 2017)

"These pictures show the real Berlin night."

— Berliner Zeitung (online), Clemens Schnur, February 3, 2017

"His photos show a city that many Berliners probably aren't familiar with yet."

— RBB Abendschau

"En Route to the Witching Hour–The photographer Romeo Alaeff shows another side of Berlin."

— Mit Vergnügen, Charlott Tornow, Jan 23, 2017