On the battlefield

Auf dem Schlachtfeld / At the Battlefield (2010-2014) is an ongoing documentary project in which I photograph former battlegrounds of well known historic battles in the Bavarian region. The images are strict and modest recordings of places where thousands of soldiers once fought for their lives and their nations. Places where world powers measured their strength at the expense of millions of civilians. Battles that are honoured in heroic phrases in history books. Sites that have now become 'landscapes of no account' - dull, inconvenient places of no meaning, covered under a thick foggy greyness of passing time. Places that could be anywhere, sometimes fully vanished in a new function. Times passes on, time changes things, viewpoints, memories. New historic events occur, we move on. What we as human beings tend to forget is that the choices we make today, will be the history of tomorrow. Time is movement. But in which direction are we moving? The photos are combined with short texts and a Dadaist poem. Since 2014 soil of the battlefields are also part of the installation (nova noir).