A CLOSE-UP TALE OF TWO CITIES

       How does Berlin compare visually to New York, the epitome of the modern metropolis? German photographer Gerrit Engel has lined the walls of Munich's International Design Museum with nearly 70 images of both, but it's not just a contrast in skylines.
       Berline - which next month marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall - can't match Manhattan's array of skyscrapers, but in Engel's survey, its buildings have character to spare.
       Engel, 44, is an Essen native who trained in architecture and photography in Munich and New York. His acclainmed 1997 debut as a photographer involved images of grain elevators, a theme that had previously drawn Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier.
       In the current exhibition, continuing through Novermber 1, Engel examines his subject buildings like a scientist studying exotic beings.
       His "portraits" of houses present individual faces that become a panorama of the city.
       Photos from both cities are gathered in groups according to similar characteristics and history. There are massive enlargements of some images mounted in the middle of the gallery, among them such familiar edifices as the Trump Tower, Sony Plaza and Rockefeller Centre.
       Anything but postcards, the pictures carry all the realism of broad daylight - no pretty red glow or even a blue aky. The soft, milky grey and white shades of the sky allow the details and nuances of colour to stand out in even greater clarity.
       The show is a breath of fresh air, a chance to see these cities as never before. New York is renowned for its magnificent skyline, but it's remarkable to see the components singled out, such as the aptly named Majestic Apartments, built in 1931.
       There are many such surprises, such as the fact - little known to outsiders - that Manhattan has white wooden houses. Engel's shots of the Morris-Jumel Mansion and the romantic Engine Company No 31, resembling a little castle, give New York a homier perspective than is usually depicted in the news media.
       The exhibition is rather small but lots of fun ride. You can visit two great cities in the space of an hour and see both in a whole new light.
       Find out more at www.Die-Neue-Sammlung.de.