Ortsübliche Ankündigung / Local Announcement

The city of Berlin is flooded with signs and marks from different kind of creators and audiences. For his latest publication Ortsübliche Ankündigung (Local Announcement) locally based photographer Emmett Edelstein did choose a rare and easy to overlook regional phenomenon to spotlight: chalk drawings by chimney sweepers.

Just like tags seemingly chimney sweepers mark the entrances of houses with chalk and announce their visits for chimney cleaning in the near future to the residents. Although usually a chimney sweep is made known via letter or mailbox notification these uncommon signs are still used and appear rarely throughout the city. Ortsübliche Ankündigung (Local Announcement), which is the official term for these drawings, is a selection of captured chimney sweep marks that the photographer collected over a ten year time span.

Just like monikers on freight trains each sweeper has his own style of combining a broom, ladder, and boiler brush to his/her unique logo, of course accompanied by the aimed date to visit. The lovely produced Riso zine with silver colour printed on black paper compiles beautiful examples of well trained daily executed signs, each one with a unique aesthetic carried out on concrete, glass or wooden surface of Berlin entrances. The 32-paged publication also includes a short text by Jo Preußler and is limited to 80 hand numbered copies.

32 pages, 14,8 x 20,7 cm, 1 colour (silver) Riso zine on black paper, 80 numbered copies
Printed by: Drucken3000
Language: German/English
Release date: February 2025
Publisher: TUCKER BAG PRESS