Talking Books

With Talking Books, C/O Berlin regularly invites visitors to rediscover the world of photobooks. As part of the exhibition Graciela Iturbide . Eyes to Fly With, Berlin-based photographer Maria Sturm will be presenting her book You Don’t Look Native to Me (2018).

Like Graciela Iturbide's long-term series White Fence (2023), Sturm impressively addresses questions of identity, belonging, and marginalization. While Iturbide's series provides intimate insights into the lives of Mexican subcultures and symbolically addresses barriers, Sturm has been portraying young Lumbee people from North Carolina since 2011. Her book combines photographs with interviews and shows how Native American identity is not static, but rather in a state of flux across generations.

The Lumbee, who were only officially recognized in 2025, exemplify questions of inclusion and social belonging: Who belongs to American society? How do communities define themselves? The event opens up space to reflect on and rethink the photographic approach to these complex issues.

Maria Sturm (b. 1985, Romania) is a Berlin-based photographer, mother and teacher whose work explores questions of identity, belonging, and representation, rooted in her own migration from Romania to Germany. Sturm is a Fulbright and DAAD scholar and a recipient of the Daylight Photo Award, the Royal Photographic Society Award, and the PHmuseum Women Photographers Grant. Her work has been exhibited internationally at Aperture Gallery, Addis Foto Fest and Photoforum Pasquart and published in The Guardian, CNN and British Journal of Photography.