Bernd Arnold: Wahlkampfrituale
Büro für Fotos, Cologne
18 September - 17 October 1998
Wahlkampfrituale = "rituals of an election campaign"
The black & white reportage photographs by BERND ARNOLD (b. 1961) taken in summer 1998 are not only a documentation on the election campaign for the new chancellor in Germany (Bundestagswahl), but the most current documentation about this event.
The Bundestagswahl had not even been concluded upon the opening date of the exhibition. The photographs had not even been requested by any newspaper and were first time shown at the Büro für Fotos. The photojournalist Bernd Arnold has created a series of images kept free from any type of editing interference. The series is the third part of a trilogy. It is the third part of his research on the behavioural attitudes he has observed in different contexts of society.
In the first part he documented the catholic life scenery in Cologne (compiled in the book "Das Kölner Heil", 1997). The second part is a collection of TV set sceneries, "Ist die Erde eine Mattscheibe?" ("Is the Earth a Telly?").
The entire trilogy shows organisers - show masters - of public events and their audience. Both are conditioned by similar ways of conducts, which are very theatrical, close to what one can imagine as a "ritual". In his very specific and individual photographic style Bernd Arnold lights the precisely calculated gestures of the actors of these public manifestations and succeeds in reflection on the aspects of power and its fascination.
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