WAITING FOR THE SUNby `getcarter

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N I G H T S H I F T

This is a monochrome crop of my 3rd piece

of a series I decided to dedicate to a certain group of people who are characteristic of the Ruhrgebiet (Germany) - I am talking about shopmen who run a so called "Kiosk", "Bude" or "Trinkhalle".
These places are far more than just a newspaper kiosk; it is more a solid root of social life, as the neighbourhood meets there.
Those places do not have a sophisticated interior decoration - none of them. But they are all different. You can feel this difference in the first moment you enter such a place comparing it to the one you have visited before.
The difference makes the person behind the counter - it´s this person´s personaltiy turning this shop in to a very special place; it is actually no wonder as some of those shops have a direct connection to the flat of the shopowner. They have a hard job, opening at 5:00 am and closing sometimes at 1:00 am, running their tough business 7 days a week.

Above you see Wolfgang who chills listening to damped raggie music. He runs this shop together with his wife Ellie - they named this corner shop ANNEBUDE. It´s actually the first design kiosk I saw. It is quite famous as the local television chanell had been broadcasting a coverage about this place. Even the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", a nationwide newspaper, reported on this shop. They have an own website aswell: [link]

The interior however has been build by Wolfgang who worked as a booth builder before. It looks like a living room turned inside out.
Ellie and Wolfgang have a clear love/hate relationship to their business. On the one hand this shop is like a magnet - you cannot leave it alone, going on holidays. On the other hand it is a real enrichment being a solid root of social life.
"I never knew so many people before I started the business", Wolfgang told me.

Both still look for a proper exit startegy.