Breakdancing was born on the streets of New York City in the 1970s, emerging alongside graffiti writing, deejaying and emceeing as a cornerstone of hip-hop culture, and it continues to be seen everywhere in the city's streets and subways. In his book "Breakin' the City", German photographer Nicolaus Schmidt provides a portrait of break dancers from the Bronx and Brooklyn. At Deutsches Haus he will show these photographs as slides carefully describing the dancer's athletic feats against the urban fabric around them, on subway cars, in city plazas, on sidewalks and elsewhere. Along with these dynamic action shots, in the second half of the book Schmidt presents striking portraits of the dancers in moments of repose, relating their often extraordinary life stories and his personal experiences with them. Some of the dancers will come personally to join this presentation of the first book focused on breakdance in streets of New York City.

Nicolaus Schmidt, born 1953, is a photographer and artist from Berlin. He worked with outdoor installations as well with painting and photography projects. In the 1980s he was president of terre des hommes Germany, a children's right organisation. At Deutsches Haus he showed photographs from the alternative subculture of Berlin and from his project with NYC breakdancers.

Made possible through the generous support of Air Berlin.

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