Ted Sonnenschein
The Train is a Cinema
2008-2015
A series of moving photographs made on Berlin’s S-Bahn between 2008 and 2015. Composed of single, uninterrupted takes, each beginning as the train leaves one station and ending as it arrives at the next, the works explore light, reflection, movement, and perception while tracing a changing Berlin through its architecture and the passing of the seasons.This seven year project collected hundreds of hours of takes and over a hundred completed films.
von Lichtenberg nach Charlottenburg (5. Dec 2009)
von Westkreuz nach Ostkreuz (26. Jan 2010)
von Bornholmer Strasse nach Gesundbrunnen
White Out
Berlinerblau
Coming Into Autumn
Selected FilmsThe City Passes Through (2008)
Train Songs I (2009)
Sled (2009)
Ostkreuz x 4 (2009)
von Lichtenberg nach Charlottenburg (2010)
6 Berlin Views (2010)
City Within the Glass (2010)
Fog I-IV (2010)
von Westkreuz nach Ostkreuz (26. Jan 2010)
Wir fahren nach Hohenschönhausen II (2010)
Before the Green Comes (2010)
Crack Open a Tall Boy (2010)
Winter Gold (2011)
Coming Into Morning (fog clears, leaves leaving) (2011)
Zoetrope (2011)
Side View Window (2011)
Light Study (Wall) (2011)
Fall Colors (2011)
it sets in the west (going east) (2011)
Five Berlin Views (2012)
Moving Forward Keeps Taking Me Back (2012)
White Out (2013)
Other Transit Work
Moving-image works exploring the interiors, lights, surfaces, and rhythms of Berlin’s transit system.
Bus Films
Moving photographs made from Berlin buses, each filmed between stops in a single uninterrupted take, exploring windows, reflections, light, and movement.
Underground Lights
Moving studies of fluorescent lights in Berlin’s U-Bahn stations, exploring rhythm, repetition, movement, and the architecture of the underground.
Surfaces
Moving studies of surfaces inside trains and buses, filmed between stops as changing light and movement transform otherwise fixed details.
Am Pilz
2021-present
An ongoing series of moving photographs made at a pond in Berlin, exploring water as a shifting surface between reflection, depth and abstraction.
Selected Exhibitions & Screenings
Films, installations, and moving photographs have been presented internationally at film festivals, galleries, museums, artist-run spaces, and live cinema events. Selected presentations include:Millennium Film Workshop, Brooklyn, NY (2023)
The Films of Ted Sonnenschein, a solo retrospectiveCinecity: The Architectural Film Project, Australia (2010-2014)
Multiple screenings. Screens received the Judges’ Choice Award, selected by Zaha Hadid and Emma WilliamsonMoving Silence (2011-2012)
Five Berlin Views presented in live cinema programs in Athens, Nicosia, New Delhi, and other venues.Electronic Church, Berlin
Installation of The Train Is a Cinema within the venue’s waiting roomHow Is This Glass?
Post-Glass Video Festival,
Heller Gallery, New York; Glass Art Society (GAS), SeattleVIDEOKILLS, Berlin
Site-specific installation in an abandoned public swimming poolExperiments in Cinema
Albuquerque, New Mexico (2013, 2014)VIDEOHOLICA
International Video Art Festival, Varna, BulgariaFestival Miden
Kalamata, GreeceCrosstalk Video Art Festival
Budapest, HungarySchaeffer’s Gate 5
Oslo, Norway
Exhibition including early New York subway photographs
Millennium Film Workshop - Retrospective
Brooklyn, New York, 2023
The Films of Ted Sonnenschein
Solo retrospective presenting a selection of films spanning Sonnenschein’s work in moving image.
Moving Silence
Beginning in 2011, Five Berlin Views became part of Moving Silence, a program curated by Matthias Fritsch pairing silent films with live musical accompaniment. Presented at festivals and cultural venues in Europe and beyond, each performance offered a new interpretation of the film through a different musical collaboration.
Cinecity
A group of films presented through Cinecity: The Architectural Film Project between 2010 and 2014. Screens received the Judges’ Choice Award, selected by Zaha Hadid and Emma Williamson.
Biography
Ted Sonnenschein is a filmmaker and photographer from New York, based in Berlin. His work explores light, movement, reflection and perception through moving images, photography and installation. His films and installations have been presented internationally at festivals, galleries and artist-run spaces.
