iHeartBerlin at Ten
I knew Frank and Claudio back when I was still figuring out my own blog. We ran into each other at parties, on press trips, in those hours after midnight when you’re already deep into whatever the night became. They had the idea for iHeartBerlin early on, and I watched them build it piece by piece—careful, thoughtful, never trying too hard.
Ten years in, they threw a party to celebrate. Which was exactly the right move, because iHeartBerlin was always built on parties. The photographs, the people, the nights that actually mattered in a city moving too fast to stop and look back. They documented it better than anyone else, not because they were journalists but because they actually cared about the scene.
I don’t know how much they planned for longevity back then. You don’t really think about decade-long runs when you’re just posting because the alternative is letting the moment disappear. But they built something that lasted, and people trusted them for it. That’s rare.