Photographer Captures Berlin’s Partygoers Just After Leaving the Club

No club scene anywhere else in the world can match Berlin for its mystique, magnetism, and music. The city draws in creatives from all over — including photographer Chris Noltekuhmann, who has spent the past two and a half years taking portraits of ravers moments after they left the venue.

Inviting people into his studio, Noltekuhmann sought to capture his subjects in their “afterglow” by using a simple setup and a medium format analog camera.

“The idea for the series actually developed quite organically,” Noltekuhmann tells PetaPixel. “Three years ago, I moved to Los Angeles, and since then Berlin has become my second home. When it comes to going out, Berlin truly spoils you: endless possibilities, any day of the week, at any hour. The city’s club culture is world-famous.”

Noltekuhmann got the idea after a night out at the city’s most famous club, Berghain, which often stays open all weekend. “Many of the clubs I went to when I first moved to Berlin don’t even exist anymore. The city is constantly in flux — nothing lasts forever. Berlin Night After Glow is my attempt to freeze a moment of this culture before it changes yet again.”

Initially, Noltekuhmann shot just his friends, but the project grew and grew. He ultimately photographed 350 people on over 400 rolls of film; 160 of those frames have been curated into a book.

Noltekuhmann captured DJs, musicians, actors, dancers, scientists, architects, and many others. “The beauty of Berlin is: everyone goes out. And that diversity was something I wanted to make visible,” he adds.

Berlin’s unique clubbing scene means that people leave the venue at odd times of day. Noltekuhmann would tell people to come to his studio whenever they leave the club, meaning people would come in the morning, or sometimes closer to noon.

“The timing was always unpredictable, which was part of the charm. People came from all over Berlin’s club landscape: iconic spaces like Berghain, KitKat, Tresor, ://about blank, Sisyphos, Renate, and many smaller underground venues,” he says.

Noltekuhmann shot all of the photos on Kodak Portra 400 medium format film, using a single lens on a Mamiya RZ67 and HMI lighting to create a consistent visual language.

“I always gravitate toward an analog look because, to me, it feels timeless,” he explains. “Film has a cinematic feel, a texture and depth that’s incredibly difficult to replicate digitally. That was a big part of why I chose to shoot this entire project on medium format film.”

“I also believe people behave differently in front of an analog camera,” he continues. “Every frame feels precious. The Mamiya RZ67 is large, heavy, and has a loud shutter, which I used intentionally. I wanted people to feel slightly intimidated, to take the moment seriously. It creates a shift in energy.”

Kodak Portra 400 was “the natural choice.” Its properties are well-known: rendering smooth skin tones in a warm, natural way. “Portra 400 gave me enough ISO to shoot around f/5.6 at 1/125 to 1/60, depending on how far the bellows of the RZ67 were extended with the 110mm lens.”

The film was developed at Noltekuhmann’s local lab in Berlin. “They still use a hanging development method for C41, which is quite rare today. Medium format film has no perforation, so it’s very fragile,” he notes. “This lab is one of the last I know that still develops C41 by hand, which gave me the confidence and consistency I needed for a long-term project like this.”

Noltekuhmann made handmade darkroom prints at Contact Photo Lab in Los Angeles. “They’re incredible — you can even book the darkroom yourself. I wanted the project to stay as authentic and analog as possible. But printing every single image by hand wouldn’t have given me the color consistency needed for a full book.

“The Mamiya RZ67 is a wonderful but tricky camera: the farther the bellows extend for close focusing, the more light you lose in the exposure. That meant I needed a workflow that allowed subtle corrections in post to achieve a unified look across the entire series.”

It meant everything was scanned on Noltekuhmann’s Imacon Precision 3, an old drum-style scanner. “It’s a diva and only runs on Windows XP, but it delivers results that are the closest thing to a traditional darkroom handprint,” he adds.

Noltekuhmann is a very successful commercial photographer, having captured stars like Timothée Chalamet, Ewan McGregor, and Gisele Bündchen. He shoots all of his personal projects on film and clients love his analog look.

“Shooting a full commercial campaign entirely on film is tricky. I work a lot with celebrities for luxury clients, and their PR teams want to check images immediately on set and make quick selects,” he says. “But despite these limitations, clients still love the analog feel.”

Nevertheless, Noltekuhmann always brings an analog camera with him on commercial shoots as a visual reference tool. “I shoot a few frames on film, then develop and scan them. Those scans often become the foundation for the color grade and overall look in postproduction.”

Berlin’s clubs have long been a sanctuary for outsiders, creatives, queer communities, and anyone seeking a space where identity, expression, and freedom are lived without inhibition.

“I travel a lot and spend time in many different cultures. It constantly reminds me how fragile the freedom is that we enjoy in Berlin — and in Europe in general,” says Noltekuhmann. “The openness, the fluidity, the ease with which people can express themselves here is anything but guaranteed. In many places, that kind of freedom either never existed or has slowly disappeared.”

To purchase a copy of Berlin Night After Glow, head to Noltekuhmann’s website. For more of his work, check out his Instagram.

Image credits: Photographs by Chris Noltekuhmann.