Bold claim: Berlin’s night life isn’t just a scene—it’s a living, evolving canvas where culture, freedom, and hedonism collide. Now, photographer Chris Noltekuhmann is giving us an intimate look at what happens when the party fades and the afterglow begins. For more than two years, he’s wandered from Berghain to the city’s hidden underground venues, inviting revelers into his studio to capture them in that quiet, luminous moment after the music stops.
The project, Berlin Night After Glow, grew almost by chance. Noltekuhmann recalls moving to Los Angeles three years ago and discovering that Berlin felt like a second home. The city’s club culture—endless options, every day, at any hour—has a magnetic pull for artists, and Noltekuhmann wanted to document that pull before it shifts again. The idea crystallized after a night at Berghain, a club famed for its all-weekend hours and constant reinvention.
What started with close friends expanded into a broader collaboration. He photographed 350 people across more than 400 rolls of film, with 160 frames selected for a book. The subjects span DJs, musicians, actors, dancers, scientists, architects, and many others. “Berlin’s magic is that everyone goes out,” he says. “That diversity was central to what I wanted to reveal.”
Time of entry into his studio didn’t follow a clock. People would show up in the early morning or around noon, having exited clubs like Berghain, KitKat, Tresor, ://about blank, Sisyphos, Renate, and a host of smaller underground spaces. The unpredictability of the schedule became part of the project’s charm.
The technical setup emphasizes a consistent, tactile aesthetic: Kodak Portra 400 film on a Mamiya RZ67 with a single lens, paired with HM I lighting to maintain a cohesive look throughout the series. Noltekuhmann explains that he prefers analog for its timeless feel—the texture and depth of film offer something digital images struggle to replicate. He also believes the presence of an analog camera subtly shifts how subjects comport themselves, adding gravity to the moment.
Portra 400 was chosen for its skin-tone rendering and warm, natural tones. It also offered the flexibility to shoot at practical settings—roughly f/5.6 at shutter speeds around 1/125 to 1/60, adjusted as the RZ67’s bellows extended with the 110mm lens.
Developing and printing choices further reinforce the project’s analog integrity. The film was processed at a Berlin lab still performing C41 development by hand—a rare practice today. The medium-format film’s lack of perforations requires careful handling, but the process yielded reliable, consistent results for a long-form project.
Noltekuhmann produced handmade darkroom prints at Contact Photo Lab in Los Angeles, valuing authentic, analog printing. Yet for a uniform color finish suitable for a book, some processing and scanning adjustments were still necessary. The Mamiya RZ67’s design—where more bellows extension can reduce light—meant subtle post-processing corrections were essential to achieve a unified series look.
All images were digitized with an Imacon Precision 3 drum scanner, a tool Noltekuhmann affectionately calls a “diva” that runs on Windows XP. The scans deliver a result closest to a traditional darkroom print, preserving the tactile feel that defines the project.
Beyond its aesthetic, Noltekuhmann’s career underscores a broader truth about photography today: even as he works with high-profile commercial clients and celebrities, he maintains a commitment to film for personal work. He notes that luxury brands often want instant selects on set, but the analog approach remains compelling for both him and his clientele. He still carries an analog camera on shoots as a reference tool, capturing a few frames on film to inform color grading and overall postproduction.
Berlin’s club culture has long served as a sanctuary for outsiders, queer communities, and anyone seeking a space to express identity freely. Noltekuhmann reflects on the fragility of that freedom, earned through openness and fluidity that isn’t guaranteed everywhere. He travels widely and sees how other places interpret freedom, reinforcing his appreciation for Berlin’s moment-to-moment openness.
Berlin Night After Glow is available for purchase on Noltekuhmann’s website, with additional works and updates found on his Instagram. The project not only documents a city in transition but also invites viewers to consider how spaces for expression endure or dissolve over time.
If you’re curious to explore more or own a copy, you can learn more at https://www.noltekuhlmann.com/shop and follow his work on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/noltekuhlmann/?hl=en. Image credits go to Chris Noltekuhmann."}
