John Gossage (United States, 1946) works like an archaeologist to bring the past to life on the basis of commonplace objects. He himself called it 'photographing against forgetfulness'. It is for that reason that he takes pictures in the most diverse places and under the most varied circumstances. In doing so he repeatedly seeks the most appropriate form for the story that he gradually recovers from the past.

Gossage has fifteen books to his name, including 'The Pond' (1985), about the many faces of a plot of wasteland on the edge of a city. For a quarter of a century he photographed in Berlin with great regularity. In 2004 he published a 400 page book, Berlin in the Time of the Wall. He shows the photographs in varying compositions each time they are exhibited: there are many approaches to history, and the story is never finished.