BEFORE THE WALL CAME DOWN – Rupert Stebbings

The narrative of Before The Wall Came Down takes place in many overlapping planes. Together with his personal experiences, the author worked and traveled in the company of friends, retracing the forays of a man who crossed Eastern Europe, meeting a myriad of people, some of whom have had a historical and relevant impact on his life, described with unexpected anecdotes.
The description of a time that seems to have crystallized thanks to the supporting evidence of magnificent photographs, returns with nostalgia and melancholy through images that have become history: a peasant world that Rupert had the privilege of witnessing with his own eyes and, thanks to his lens, documenting and immortalising forever.
Moments of real life which in some moments become hilariously humourous, a leap in time which opens a window onto a crucial historical period for the XX century: the fall of the Berlin Wall at the end of the 1980s, which in cascade is reflected throughout the Soviet bloc. A heartfelt story, to be read carefully. It’s impossible not to feel elegiac for those who in those years had the opportunity to take a trip and develop a camera roll, and that the author generously unveils. A reflection, too, compared to the bulimic consumption of images taken on cell phones and junk speed society of today.

Rupert is a graduate of both Liverpool University and The London School of Printing. Having passed through London and New York he has been living and working in Medellin, Colombia since 2005 where he previously authored “The Viva Effect”.