Anachronism by Anthony Suau

Photo Credit: Anthony Suau

Anthony Suau (Peoria, Illinois, USA, 1956) has dedicated his career to documenting the effects of international events on the lives of people around the world.

Suau started his career at the Chicago Sun Times in 1976 and later joined the Denver Post. In 1985, he moved to New York City to work for Black Star agency. He was a contract photographer for Time magazine between 1991 and 2009. Suau was one of the co-founders of the non-profit collective Facing Change: Documenting America, which was founded in 2009 by a group of social minded photographers and writers to document the issues facing the United States during a time of economic crisis.

Anachronism

Budapest Award, prize stories

11-11-1989

A group of West Germans hammer at the wall near Brandenburg Gate, Berlin. In January 1989, East German leader Erich Honecker said he expected the Berlin Wall to endure for another century. By November it had become an anachronism - and so had Honecker. Hundreds of thousands of East Germans fled their country by various routes until the government decided on 9 November to allow free travel to the West. Two days later the frustration that had been building up over nearly three decades was finally unleashed on the symbol of division that the wall had become.

Commissioned by: Black Star for U.S. News & World Report