Since she was awarded the Leica Medal of Excellence in 1987, German photographer Herlinde Koelbl has never stopped receiving prizes. For nearly forty years, she has studied the social and professional worlds through her documentaries, from German living rooms in (Das deutsche Wohnzimmer, 1980) to writers’ desks (Im Schreiben zu Haus, 1998) and work uniforms (Kleider machen Leute, 2012). Her latest work, Targets, is currently on display at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, after being exhibited at the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin. It was a commercial and critical success.
The exhibition and its catalogue, available from Prestel, feature over 200 photographs shot in 30 countries. Koelbl spent the last six years in military training camps on every continent, photographing the targets soldiers use to prepare for combat. Boring? Hardly. The photographs reveal many economic, cultural and political differences.
In addition to the training targets, we see canned food, pieces of cardboard, metal plates and wooden planks riddled with bullets. But the soldiers also use human-like figures: wooden silhouettes, plastic dolls, pictures and photographs of people. One can imagine the psychological difference between shooting at a target shaped like a circle and another like a human head. Veterans share their stories and make the pressures of war palpable. “If you start thinking whether you should shoot, him or me, then it’s too late and you’re already dead,” says one.
Read the full article on the French version of L’Oeil.
EXHIBITION
TARGETS. Photographs by Herlinde Koelbl
31st October 2014 – 11th January 2015
Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
Friedrich-Ebert-Allee 4
53113 Bonn
Germany
BOOK
Herlinde Koelbl: Targets
Auteurs : Herlinde Koelbl, Gerry Adams, Arkadi Babtschenko
240 pages, 24×30 cm, 220 photographies couleur
Prestel Verlag, 49,95 €
ISBN 978-3-7913-4948-0
