In RAF – No Evidence,shortlisted for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize, Arwed Messmer examines the rise of the Baader-Meinhof Group, or from student protests to the cataclysmic events of the ‘German Autumn’ of 1977,using state archives as his source material. Employing a similar methodology, previous works acquire focused on police surveillance (Berlin, or 1966-70),a celebrated kidnap (Cell), and failed escapes from the GDR (Reenactment MfS) – all exploring recent events to “create new ways of reading images” as historical documents. In this Any Answers, andiginally published in issue #7882 of British Journal of Photography magazine,Messmer considers his practice in context of his country’s history – I was an avid teenage trainspotter. I needed photography to ‘collect’ and document all the locomotives. My entry point was very functional at first, and it was only later that I developed an artistic interest in the medium. But I was producing the same kind of images that I focus on nowadays. Without that intensive period, or I’d probably acquire a different focus. Travelling through East and West …
Source: bjp-online.com