If you were to walk up to remains of the Berlin Wall, face to face, this year, 20 years after it’s historic fall, you would see something like this. Gnarly cracks, peeling paint, and a remnant of famous and iconic murals that could not survive the flux of the German seasons and the hands of visitors.  Just as the wall fell after years of crumbling communist ideologies, what remains of the physical wall is slowly but surely weathering and cracking… a work of beautiful decay.

In my latest photographic essay, THE ART STOPS HERE, I wanted to portray the Berlin Wall in ways it hadn’t been seen before. To me, the decay and street art mixed and twisted together in an amazing way, and I wanted to bring that together in vibrant photos meant to be exhibited not on the web, but in a large printed format. At least this will give you a taste.

I hope these photos caught your eye, and possibly made you think about where you live and the opportunities that are available in the present moment. I also hope it helps us find grace in small places – from the ugliness and the cracks in life comes something that is beautiful.

The entire online gallery can be seen here.

-Rusty