Rituals of Election Campaigns
 Wahl Kampf Ritual

Photographs 1984 to 2021
10 federal election campaigns

The election campaigns for the German Bundestag are an ideal occasion to explore strategies of production and self-production across all political parties. This cycle is a work about the endeavour of shading light on the precisely calculated gestures of the actors of these public orchestration, their success in radiate aspects of power and its fascination. These photographs expose politics as theatre.

These are pictures of the chancellors Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl, Gerhard Schröder, Angela Merkel, N.N. and the challengers Franz Josef Strauss, Hans Jochen Vogel, Johannes Rau, Oskar Lafontaine, Rudolf Scharping, Edmund Stoiber, Fank-Walter Steinmeier, Peer Steinbrück, Martin Schulz, (Annalena Baerbock, Armin Laschet and Olaf Scholz).

In this context, media scientist Norbert Bolz once referred to the "great quit picture" as a refuge of serenity and concentration in the unending stream of visual data. The classic photograph, in other words, has strength in its weakness. It allows contemplation. An in-depth visual analysis. The rituals of election campaigns I photographed in the years 1984 to 2021 and the work is still in progress. Wahl Kampf Ritual is part of cycle Power and Ritual.