Gomma Photography Grant 2019
"I died 22 times"
Photographer
Rafael Heygster
"I died 22 times"
02 Feb, 2022
In my home country Germany has officially been in peace for more than 70 years.
The photographic work „I died 22 times“ shows and questions the way our culture deals with "warfare" outside real battlefields.
War does not only manifest itself as a military conflict on battlefields with clear physical fronts, but appears more abstractly in our society in various places.
“I died 22 times“ deals with the question "Where does war begin?"
The series combines motifs from different scenarios.
Images of weapons fairs (war as a business) are combined with motives of Airsoft, a dubious leisure activity (war as a game).
Both scenarios have one thing in common: "War" is staged as something entertaining and at the same time harmless. Nobody dies. War is thereby made consumable.
I advocate peace. With my pictures I want to contribute to the question, at which point the social acceptance actually begins, to start wars. I hope that the recipients of my pictures think about their own position on the topic.
I continue to take pictures of this work and regularly create new chapters. Each scenario shown is photographed as a single chapter and also works as a standalone reportage.
About the photographer
Rafael Heygster
In my home country Germany has officially been in peace for more than 70 years.The photographic work „I died 22 times“ shows and questions the way our culture deals with "warfare" outside real battlefields.War does not only manifest itself as a military conflict on battlefields with clear physical fronts, but appears more abstractly in our society in various places.“I died 22 times“ deals with the question "Where does war begin?"The series combines motifs from different scenarios.Images of weapons fairs (war as a business) are combined with motives of Airsoft, a dubious leisure activity (war as a game).Both scenarios have one thing in common: "War" is staged as something entertaining and at the same time harmless. Nobody dies. War is thereby made consumable.I advocate peace. With my pictures I want to contribute to the question, at which point the social acceptance actually begins, to start wars. I hope that the recipients of my pictures think about their own position on the topic.I continue to take pictures of this work and regularly create new chapters. Each scenario shown is photographed as a single chapter and also works as a standalone reportage.
